


And It All Come Crashing Down (Deleted Scenes and Ramblings)

by MisteryMaiden



Series: And It All Comes Crashing Down [11]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Hurt/Comfort, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV) Devil Reveal, Post-Devil Face Reveal to Chloe Decker, Protective Amenadiel (Lucifer TV), Protective God, Protective Michael
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:42:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23448727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisteryMaiden/pseuds/MisteryMaiden
Summary: A compilation fic of all the deleted scenes that have accumulated in a word doc on my computer for this series. Some that I didn't like the way they were going, others were just crack scenes that I wrote as a way to deal with the heaviness of the real scenes, and some were just me playing with the characters. None of this takes place during the main canon of this series (wow, that's a weird thought). You all expressed interest in reading these so here they all are!
Relationships: Amenadiel & Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Dan Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar, God & Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Linda Martin & Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Linda Martin & Mazikeen (Lucifer TV), Mazikeen & Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Moningstar
Series: And It All Comes Crashing Down [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654117
Comments: 65
Kudos: 389





	1. Recovery Draft 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here you all go, my first draft of Recovery when I was just figuring out the pacing that I wanted for this story. When I was writing Betrayal, Recovery, and Reintroductions I was on Spring Break and running a pretty impressive fever as I suffered from a double ear infection and Influenza A. At that point writing was one of the few things I could do that didn't involve moving and triggering a coughing fit. 
> 
> That being said, I don't hate this. I just liked the second version that I wrote a lot better, which is the plotline that I decided to go with for this series. There were a few different branches that I considered, first.

Everything hurt.

That was the first thought the filtered into Lucifer’s mind as he came back to consciousness. His entire body ached with such a fierceness that he almost wondered if he had Fallen again.

Except this felt worse than that have, though he’d never thought such a thing possible before. It wasn’t just his soul that felt shredded, it was every single inch of him. Body, wings, and soul ached in a way that made him wonder what, exactly, had happened.

He almost wished he hadn’t as everything flooded back. If an angel could get amnesia, he wished that he could be the first.

She’d lied to him and poisoned him. Given him over to that priest, to be sent to Hell. He wanted to say that she hadn’t known the details to the ritual, but he wasn’t sure. Not anymore. The knife with her blood filling it, the necklace that he’d given her to channel the power behind the spells, all of it pointed to her having full knowledge of what was going to be done. Denial had left him the moment that the priest had finished carving up his chest.

He’d stop struggling to stay awake once the priest had started on his wings. He’d tried to use them to defend himself but the magic of the circle had attacked with every mere twitch. Helpless and bleeding at the hands of a human priest.

Had this been the plan? Lucifer wondered brokenly. Had his Father planned this from the moment that He’d ensured Chloe would be in his path. He wanted to say no, that not even his Father would do such a thing, but his Mother had told him the truth. That his Father had wanted to destroy him instead of banishing him all that time ago. That stung, even now. He wondered if that wouldn’t have been a better fate.

An angered breath being sucked in let him know that he wasn’t alone, as he’d thought. Stretching his senses, he wondered if he’d finally lost it. Eons in Hell hadn’t managed to break him but maybe this had been the final straw. He could remember her words. _“Not to me.”_

A lie. One he’d fallen for, like the unteachable moron that he was. Even after he’d seen her horror, Cain’s body on the floor, and she’d disappeared for weeks, he’d let himself fall for her lies. Her assurance that it changed nothing. She’d even pretended to call for help, pretended that whatever had been in that wine had affected her too. He’d fallen for it, allowed himself to fall unconscious because _he’d trusted her._

_“I only had a small sip; I should be fine. Right now, let’s worry about you.”_

He was so stupid.

“Enough,” a voice snarled with rage. “You will stop such nonsense right this now. _You are not to blame.”_

His opening, Lucifer stared in shock. Next to him, face filled with anger that he, funnily, thought wasn’t directed at him, sat his Father.

It was official.

He’d lost it.

Linda would be so disappointed.

He even thought he saw Amenadiel, Azrael, _Raphael, and Michael_ sitting around what looked to be the infirmary in the _Silver City._

Just what had been in that drug?

His Father sighed. “You’ve not lost it, My Lightbringer.”

Yeah, right. He was done falling for lies, thanks. He was determined to be teachable this time.

He wondered if Linda would be able to help him with that. She, at least, was trustworthy. She’d more than proved that after his Mother had _stabbed_ her and she’d still stuck around. Perhaps Mazikeen as well. She might have betrayed him in the past, yet she’d never have tried to kill him to get him back to Hell. And her wanting to go home because the human world was painful suddenly made a lot more sense to him. Besides, she was a demon. A little betrayal every once in a while was pretty much expected. That she’d been feeling _bad_ about it was the strange thing.

“I never thought I would find Myself liking a Demon,” His Father mused, sounding as if that thought was vaguely interesting instead of proof of Lucifer’s new insanity.

His Father sighed. “You are not insane, Samael.”

The anger he’d expected to rise up at that name stayed absent. He found it very hard to care about what he was addressed as when everything hurt and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to try talking right then.

Amenadiel finally spoke up, his voice sounding hoarse. “I think claiming to like Maze while trying to convince him that he’s not nuts isn’t going to work, Father. You have been very vocal of your feelings on demons in the past.”

Lucifer looked at his brother, really looked. There was dried blood on his robe, his face looked as if he’d been crying, and his wings were wrapped around Azrael like it was all he could do to keep them both upright.

It was the dried blood that convinced him. He’d never have inflicted that circle on Amenadiel or any of his siblings, not even in insanity. That much he was sure of.

Just what had happened after he’d lost consciousness?

“Your Mazikeen found your penthouse trashed and poisoned wine. She could smell the _human_ on the wine.” His Father spat the word human the same way he’d once said _demon._ Lucifer knew which human he was talking about. It was a strange comfort to know that his Father hadn’t planned any of this. Like himself, his Father never lied. “She got your Linda to call for Amenadiel.”

“I came running,” his brother admitting. “Or flying, rather. Linda said that Maze sounded furious and scared.”

Mazikeen? _Scared?_

Amenadiel nodded at his face. “That was my thought. I wasn’t willing to waste time if Maze was scared. We tracked _her_ down and got the full story. Once I had Kinley’s name, I could find him immediately.” He looked guilty. “I couldn’t sense you.”

“The circle,” he rasped, regretting it.

Amenadiel snarled, true rage. “Maze knocked out Kinley before I had time to blink. I, stupidly, crashed right into the circle before looking at it. You,” he chocked. “You looked dead. I wasn’t even thinking. I learned the hard way that it was a mistake.”

His Father looked startled as if this part was news to Him. Perhaps it was, if Lucifer had been in such bad shape Amenadiel, of all his sibling, leapt without looking. Since his Father apparently didn’t, currently, want him dead, he supposed that there had been other matters on the Almighty’s mind.

His Father sent a horrified look at him. He didn’t interrupt Amenadiel, however, so Lucifer had no clue what it was about.

The look got much worse.

“Maze dropped everything and dragged me away from the circle.” Amenadiel grimaced. “I don’t know how long you were in there, Lucifer, but just approaching it was agony. I couldn’t hear or see anything for about fifteen minutes according to Maze.”

The horror on his sibling’s faces turned to Amenadiel. His eldest brother grimaced at Raphael horrified gesturing. Something she only ever did when one of them hid an injury from her and she found out. “More important things were happening. Ezekiel took care of me.” Amenadiel told her gently.

Oh. Lucifer looks down at himself, surprised at the lack of physical injury. He remembered being quite injured all over before he’d passed out. “I went to get Father once I could see properly,” Amenadiel whispered and, to Lucifer’s horror, tears gathered. “You were _flickering_ , Luci.”

Ah, right. Lucifer winced. That would certainly send his older sibling running, now that they were on good terms again. His brother had extremely overprotective sibling instincts if something injured one of them badly enough. He hadn’t seen it happen since Azrael had begun her full-time job as Angel of Death, old enough to have her own domain.

“I told Maze to keep away from the circle. If it did that to me, I didn’t want to see what it would do to her.” Amenadiel gave him a laughing look. “I’ve been told that she tried anyways. Sent her flying backward. She probably would have tried again if it hadn’t hurt you.”

“Now _I_ like the demon,” Michael muttered, not looking at him. Lucifer tried his best not to stare at his twin from where he lurked. “Threat of destruction and she still threw herself head-first.”

He Father nodded in agreement.

Lucifer wondered at what point he’d entered an alternate universe.

“I got you here as soon as Father broke the circle,” Amenadiel told him. “We worked non-stop for _days_ to keep you alive.”

A few hours on earth, he translated. Baffled, he stared at them all in open confusion.

He couldn’t really understand what was happening. He’d expected to wake up, back in Hell, and he hadn’t really been opposed to that near the end. He’d have retrieved Maze, of course, and said his goodbyes to Linda, Ella and Daniel. Likely even the spawn, he thought fondly and would have licked his wounds for a few centuries before trying again.

It’s not like this was the first time someone had tried this one him.

“ _What.”_ His Father asked darkly, fury rolling off him. The others looked at their Father in confusion.

Lucifer frowned. Surely he’d already known that. The Church had been pulling things like this since it’s _beginning._ They’d never used Enochian magic before, true enough, but things like binding spell and exorcism? That was par for the course. The only reason it’d taken so long this time was that modern humans never believed him when he claimed to be the Devil. Usually, he walked away in a good bit of pain and a bunch of blubbering priest behind him.

Judging by the trembling of the room, His Father had very much not been aware. At all.

Confused and a wanting to get off this subject, _yesterday,_ he turned back to Amenadiel in curiosity. His siblings, however, were looking back and forth between them. Azrael was frowning, Amenadiel looked worried, and Michael looked like he was about to smite something. Raphael merely looked confused.

“Moving on?” he rasped, hopefully. His Father seethed beside him and he tried not to think about what that meant. He wasn’t sure he wanted to get him hopes up.

He was pretty sure he’d do a better job of it when he didn’t feel like he’d been put through a meat grinder by his best friend. Probably.

He really needed to talk to Linda. She always made things make sense. Eventually.

At the very least, going against her advice always worked out horribly for him and he wasn’t completely stupid. Just really hard to change.

Demons made so much more sense, he sighed mournfully. It was always straight forwards with them. They try and kill him, he smites them, they cower for a few centuries, then repeat. Sometimes he let Maze at them and watched the show. She was fierce once he’d gotten her trained. Sometimes they’d get a lucky blow in and he’d swing shot of the gates and end up in a different area of Hell entirely before tracking them down and smiting them. Unless Maze got to them first, then he’d be ordering people to clean up the remains.

The room was shaking again, he mused, looking at the alarmed faces on his siblings.

Before he could wonder what had caused it, black filled his vision and he allowed himself to pass out once more.

He was pretty sure this was just a very strange dream anyways.

* * *

Michael watched their Father as His anger shook the Silver City once more. He could not find it in himself to disagree.

Once, they’d always been able to hear each other. They were twins, the First Twins, two halves of a whole. Their thoughts filtered in and out of each other’s heads without a single barrier for millennia before they had started to define themselves apart from the other. Michael and Samael had still let themselves enter the other’s mind, just not as often as before.

Then not often had turned into rarely. Rarely had turned into once every few millennia. After the Fall, it had become never.

Lucifer was hurt though, and those barriers took energy to maintain. His brother was still too out of it, in too much pain, to bring them back up or notice that they had been down in the first place.

He hadn’t said that bit about the Demon out loud, after all.

The idea of Demons attacking and _killing_ his brother, multiple times of _eons,_ almost had him going down to Hell and smiting every last one of them that had ever tried. Or thought about it.

This Mazikeen had risen in his opinion with every new thought. The bit about betraying him had been concerning but it this demon was _this_ loyal, he suspected that Earth had messed with her head as it had messed with Lucifer’s. The fact that she, knowing that it could destroy her, threw herself at a magic circle because Lucifer was injured kept him from taking his fury out on her.

The invitation given to her by his Father was very much deserved, Michael thought with satisfaction.

His Father was taking the knowledge of what Hell had been like badly, he knew. They had always thought that Lucifer had thrived amongst the Demons, that his anger at being confined there hadn’t been warranted when he hadn’t seemed the least bit harmed any time they saw him. Had never paid attention to his trips to Earth unless Amenadiel had been forced to drag him back to Hell. He never realized the reasons that he sometimes stayed on Earth longer than others.

Their ignorance had convinced their brother that they simply didn’t care if he was hurt. That Amenadiel had only been angry because he had nearly ceased to _exist_. Not that a human had hurt him, had purposely been hurting him.

Malcolm Graham's soul had been obliterated the moment that he’d left the mortal plane, after all. The only reason Cain was in Hell was that being obliterated would have been preferable to him and their Father had not been in the mood for mercy that day.

What really enraged him, more than his brother thinking injury to himself was _acceptable_ to them, was what their mother had told him.

Never had their Father considered destroying Lucifer, not even at his angriest. Michael knew that from the way their Father had frozen, fury on his face growing each time Lucifer thought of it. That had been a vicious lie and if that was what he’d thought, they Michael could almost understand that confusion he’d shown at their anger, their care.

Chloe Decker hadn’t been the only one to break his twin.

Worse, Michael wasn’t sure that Lucifer could be put back together again,

* * *

He’d known, all those months ago, when His Wife had sent Him a smug ‘Check Mate’, that She had done something to keep Lucifer from sending Her back to Hell. He’d hadn’t known what hadn’t bothered to look, because His son wasn’t going along with Her plan. He’d thought that it had just been an appeal to Lucifer’s familial loyalty that had stayed His Lightbringer’s hand.

He’d been less forgiving when She’d torn Lucifer apart by telling him that Chloe Decker was a miracle, though now He wished it had worked. Never, not a single moment, had He ever wanted any of His children destroyed.

Lucifer’s rants, after that, made much more sense. He wished He had looked so as to Smite His Wife for every saying such thing to Their son. Perhaps it was best if He left Her in that universe. He’d considered retrieving Her and bringing Her back into the fold as well. Now, He suspected that She had left for a more noble reason than first suspected.

The look of guilt as She’d walked away from Their universe made a lot more sense to Him now. Not guilt over Uriel, like He’d thought, but over what She’d done to Their son’s heart.

He still wished that She’d succeeded in killing the wretched Miracle, however. Anything to spare His son of _that_.

There was going to be a lot of work in order to put His Lightbringer back together. If He’d known what had been happening in Hell, His son would have been brought home immediately and every demon there (perhaps barring one, she was growing on him) would have been obliterated.

Ruling his own realm had never been supposed to be like that. Lucifer had been supposed to learn and grow from his time there, realize the damage that had been done in the rebellion. None had been permanently hurt but there had still been fighting, still been injuries and still had been a war, no fatalities aside.

Sending him to fight or die for eons had not been the goal. Instead, Lucifer had come to believe that he was worthless to his family due to his desire for free will and had come to resent them as he spent longer and longer fighting and failing as time moved on. Even Earth had not been safe if these soon to be _dust_ priests had done even a little of what Kinley had done.

Was this what humans felt like when they failed a child? Perhaps, He should go through the archives to see just _how_ many humans went to Hell for things they could not have known. If it was as many as He suspected, maybe Lucifer had been right about the system being unfair in one of his many rants.

Maybe He should have been listening more instead of ignoring His Morning Star.

Michael, His Sword, was reeling as well. He had let His children believe that they would be cast out as well if they associated with their Fallen brother. That had never been the case, yet He had never corrected them. He wondered if they wouldn’t have found out eons ago if He’d spoken His mind on the matter.

 _“You made mistakes too!”_ Lucifer had once yelled, the first time he’d come to Earth from Hell.

Yes, He thought, wishing to rewind Time. To go back and fix His son before He’d been broken so much. He had.

* * *

His Father and Michael both looked ill and Amenadiel had to wonder what it was that they had heard in Lucifer’s head that gave them that look. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know.

Lucifer had been extremely out of it if he’d had his barriers down. He hadn’t even protested the name Samael, which had been the first time since he’d chosen Lightbringer to be his new name. Amenadiel had been worried the moment that the Silver City had started shaking again. It had been days since their Father had been angry enough for that. He could hear his siblings whispering in worry at its return, though he couldn’t blame them.

The last shake had died down after Lucifer had been stabilized. To have it shake again had them panicking that he had relapsed and was under threat of dying once more.

Raphael was doing her best to calm them down but the fact that she didn’t know what had set their Father off had the host frightened for another reason entirely. Amenadiel gave Lucifer a fond look, pushing the worry down for now. Awake for only a few minutes and already giving them all a heart attack as he instigated their Father’s fury. He hadn’t even meant to, this time.

Amenadiel let that thought travel to the Host. The worry didn’t leave but it did die down. It could have easily been Lucifer thinking about the attack that had reignited the Earthquakes. Their Father never dealt well when one of them had truly been hurt. The calm one had always been their Mother, who dealt with the problem before She lost it on whatever unsuspecting society managed to draw Her attention. Father had lost many of His projects that way until He’d had enough and sent Her to Hell.

He hoped that he was right.

He didn’t know how his family would handle it, himself included if Lucifer was more broken than they’d suspected.

* * *

Maze had been waiting. By now, it had to have at least been a few weeks in the Silver City and she was waiting for Lucifer to pop back in existence and show off how okay that he was. She _needed_ him to do so. They all did.

Chloe was persona non grata amongst them. Trixie was the only one who was oblivious to Chloe’s role in this mess because none of them could bring themselves to tell her the truth.

Dan avoided even looking at his ex-wife whenever his daughter wasn’t around. Ella didn’t even talk _about_ her to anyone, which had the precinct up in arms. No one was sure what Chloe had done, Dan had told her, but Ella was known for being the most forgiving person that they’d ever met. And the cops took their cues from her.

The fact that Lucifer was mysteriously absent, despite having spent a solid month hopefully waiting for her every day, was also a red flag. The LAPD had all known that Lucifer was in love with her, had it confirmed when he’d killed _Pierce_ after he’d tried to kill Chloe and Lucifer, only managing to injure Chloe in the attempt.

Or that was the official story, she knew. Some of them suspected the real truth (though not the Cain or Devil part) but none of them had been willing to challenge it with Pierce having been the Sinnerman the whole time. Mostly, they all felt guilty for writing off Lucifer’s attempt to tell them all that.

Cain had been very convincing after all. She grimaced in guilt, she hadn’t helped when she’d messed with his head and caused him to lose it in the precinct. They’d put that down to Pierce discrediting him at that point, thankfully. They all knew that he’d wanted Chloe and she’d only had eyes for Lucifer.

At least, they had all thought that. Maze included. If she’d been on Lucifer’s side, had remained loyal to him, would this have happened. Would Chloe have _always_ turned on Lucifer, on her?

It grated her to know that Bitch that Lucifer called Mother had been right about Chloe all along. They hadn’t listened and Lucifer had paid the price.

As a week passed and no sign of Lucifer, Maze knew that some were thinking of opening an investigation into Chloe for his disappearance. She’d heard them muttering about it whenever she brought in another bounty. She made sure to snarl at Chloe every time she did, if Trixie wasn’t there. She’d only address the little human those few times she was in the precinct.

A lot of them had gone to LUX only to find a lot of confused employees that had no clue where their boss was, only that they were to carry on as normal. That, and Chloe Decker was never to be let inside.

Lucifer’s human bartender, Patrick, had risen in her favor as he’d been particularly nasty when Decker had tried it the first time. Patrick wasn’t stupid, Lucifer and Chloe had a date and then Lucifer goes missing without a word? Maze telling him that she was persona non grata had not helped his opinion. Maze might have moved on with her career but each employee of LUX took her word on Lucifer as Law even still.

So there Decker sat, alone and miserable as the place she loved turned into a living hell. Maze vindictively enjoyed every moment, remembering the shape Lucifer had been in when they had found him. The fury and terror as God himself broke him from that circle.

Then proceeded to track His movements from there. Twelve priests had mysteriously vanished with nothing but human ash left behind. Maze didn’t know what to feel when a few of the smarter cops started putting two and two together.

Lucifer hadn’t been subtle with his supernatural abilities and neither had Maze. She’d been worried until they started taking their cues from Ella, the most religious person in the LAPD homicide division. Even if they suspected that Lucifer and Maze were who they claimed to be, they seemed to have decided if Ella was clearly okay with it, then they should be too.

She had never felt more affection for a place a work that hadn’t been sole because of Lucifer in her existence. Or was it life now?

She was confused about that now since she could now cross into the Silver City. An open invitation by God himself.

Lilith would be screaming in rage if she knew.

That always made Maze feel a lot better about it. Anything that Lilith disapproved of was always worth doing. Even if it made her shudder just to think about.

“Another one, Maze?” one of her favorite cops laughed. “By this time next week, there won’t be an active bounty left open.”

The man that she’d hogtied and brought in slung over her shoulder, whimpered as she handed him over. She might have taken a bit of her anger out of him, Maze admitted to herself. The man was a lowlife that had taken advantage of the feelings of his girlfriend in order to drug and kill her, running off with all her possession that held value.

It had hit a bit too close to home for her, she could admit that. And if she couldn’t punish Chloe, then she sure as Hell wasn’t going to let anyone else get away with such a thing without repercussions. Jail wasn’t good enough, not for people like _her._

She knew the full strength of her anger was displayed when the cop jerked back in alarm. She stopped down on her fury and felt her eyes switch back to normal, swearing at her lack of control. Just because they suspected what Lucifer and herself were, doesn’t mean that they needed it confirmed.

What if they thought Chloe had been in the right? What if they attacked Lucifer as Chloe had? Fear pulsed in her veins at the idea of Lucifer ending up like that once again.

Someone was trying to talk to her but all she could see was Lucifer’s prone, bloodied form in a place that she couldn’t reach. “Maze!” Officer Dylan’s voice finally broke through. He didn’t look afraid, not anymore, but concerned. Maze blinked to let him know she was listening.

“You’re in the precinct,” Dylan spoke softly, trying to keep the conversation to the two of them. She could hear the others that were listening, though. They would hear every word because silence had descended on the precinct. “You just dropped off a bounty. No one here is going to hurt you.”

But they might, her brain told her. They could make something that could kill an archangel, a mere demon wouldn’t hold a candle to that. She’d never feared death before this instant but if she died, who would keep Lucifer safe? How could she keep from failing him again if she died?

“Shhhhh,” Officer Dylan whispered, letting his arms wrap around her. She stiffened but eventually relaxed. Every officer in the department was looking at them now, could see the tears that slid down her face even as she tried to hold them back.

What was happening to her?! She was a demon, the right-hand of the Devil himself! She should not be balling on the floor in front of mere humans!

Linda, she needed Linda. Linda could explain this to her, tell her what was happening.

A phone was pressed against her hand and she could hear a ringing that meant there was a call being sent out.

“Maze?” Linda asked and Maze felt herself center at Linda’s voice.

She tried to open her mouth but couldn’t make anything but a choked sob come out. Dylan gently took the phone and explained. She tried to pay attention but the image of Lucifer strung up and dying filled her head with no mercy, allowed no room for words.

“Maze, I need you to breathe. In and out,” Linda told her, calmly. Maze latched onto that calm with a desperation she’d never felt before. “In and Out,” Linda repeated.

For each repeat of that sentence, Maze felt her bones relax and the world came into sharp focus. Linda’s voice was safety. She was safe as long as Linda was speaking, as long as she could protect Lucifer from those that would seek to harm him.

Finally, she was centered and calm. Her tears ( _since when could she cry?_ ) and looked at the concerned officers gathered around her. There wasn’t a blond in sight but she could see Dan’s worried face among the crowd.

Dan was like Linda, he was safe. He knew and he didn’t care. He wouldn’t let them harm her or Lucifer if he could. Ella was the same. Three humans that knew and didn’t leave her, didn’t betray either her or Lucifer.

“What just happened?” Someone murmured as Dan grabbed her arm and lead her away from the group. The bounty she’d collected had been taken as well.

She wondered if she would ever be able to close her eyes and not see the image of her Lucifer strung up and dying because she had let herself believe that Chloe was a good person.

* * *

Officer Dylan Ryans watched Espinoze lead Mazikeen Smith away, towards the lab where Ella Lopez would be.

He knew the signs of a panic attack and that had been one Hell of a panic attack. He remembered how Smith’s eyes had turned a pitch black, all the pigment dripping away until he was looking into an empty abyss.

It was the moment that she realized what he’d seen that she’d begun to panic. The officers of the LAPD had long suspected that there wasn’t something quite human about their consultant who claimed to be the Devil and the bounty hunter that claimed to be a Demon.

No one could throw a man through glass without breaking a sweat, after all. Collected bounties didn’t beg to be kept in jail for no reason. They would have all been stupid if they couldn’t see that.

Very few had been certain that Lucifer Morningstar was just a nutcase with a lot of money that decided he’d wanted to fight crime on day. Espinoza hadn’t been the only one that had looked into the nightclub owner when he’d signed on to the LAPD as a consultant. Partnered with Chloe Decker of all people, persona non grata despite having been telling the truth since the very beginning.

He felt a bit guilty for not believing her. Malcolm had left to run free and Decker had almost lost her daughter and her life to him.

Almost because Lucifer Morningstar had somehow appeared, gotten shot, bled to death, and walked it off as if it was the average day. The blood collected that the scene had matched to the DNA that had come from one of the rare hair strands that he lost every few weeks.

The thing was, that DNA hadn’t been human. There had been no match to any known strands of DNA collected in the history of the planet. The closest they’d gotten had been a fucking dinosaur.

The circle of officers that knew that was small, as the blood sample mysteriously vanished before the test could be run again.

The evidence to his nonhuman status piled up with each and every strange happening. Suspects shouting about the Devil and confessing to everything they’d done. Shootings were Morningstar somehow walked away without a scratch. Terrifying feats of strength that the world’s strongest humans would be envious of.

The desired thing was just icing on the supernatural cake.

Dylan glanced at the other officers. They watched him with wide eyes, all of them having seen the bounty hunter’s eyes flash black the moment she’d heard Linda Martin’s voice. Espinoza had seen them look and had dared them with his eyes to say a single thing.

Not that they would. If a demon could have a panic attack, then there were obviously a few things that had been left out of the bible. Demons weren’t supposed to have emotions according to the religions of the world.

Lopez was clearly in on it too, if the way that the bounty hunter had stopped struggling the moment Lopez’s voice joyfully called out to her.

What could possibly happen to give a Demon a panic attack? If anyone should have panicked, it should have been him when the demon eyes came out. She’d seen him react to her eyes, he knew that much. That hadn’t been the only trigger, though. He pulled up the bounty request that she had just brought in. She has been without mercy to the poor guy and that could be a clue to what, exactly, was going on.

Dylan felt his eyes widen as he read the crimes that the guy was wanted for. He’d used the love of a significant other so he could kill her and took all the valuables to fund his fugitive status.

Dylan stared at the file, almost afraid. If this was what had sent Mazikeen off, something had happened to make this a trigger. There were only one of Mazikeen’s friends missing and that was one Lucifer Morningstar.

The man that everyone in the precinct knew as in love with Chloe Decker. Who was now persona non grata to even Ella Lopez.

Daryl peered over his shoulder to read the results. Unlike Dylan, Daryl sucked in a harsh breath and then looked over to the unmanned desk of Chloe Decker.

Saving the event in a locked folder that could only be opened with a passcode, Dylan hoped that he was wrong. Decker had never seemed the type to go to that extreme though, he winced, she had been dating Pierce. Who was the actual Sinnerman.


	2. Repercussion Draft 1 (Kinley's Trial)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William Kinley's Trial draft 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, I was playing with how I wanted Kinley's trial to go.

William Kinley was afraid. More afraid then he’d ever been in his decades of life.

When the means to trap a celestial had fallen into the hands of the Vatican, William had been sure that it was a sign to act on the information one Reese Getty had sent them. A picture of Satan in all his Hellish glory, coming from corrupting another human. A female woman that had once been married to Mr. Getty.

They had records going back to the establishment of the Church, depicting the Devil throughout the ages. Kinley had been the only one to see the pattern that was present within those records.

Not every time Lucifer Morningstar had appeared, has a tragedy occurred. The pope had argued, pointing to the documents that were a fabrication. A way to inflict Doubt in the sanctimonious. Nor has any exorcism ever been recorded with the ability to banish the Devil.

Then there it was. Waiting for in his office as he stomped away. A sign from Heaven that his quest was Holy.

Yet it had required something he had not had: A Miracle of God. William had nearly roared in frustration. He hadn’t given up, no, not him. God would not have given him this is there was no Miracle to be found.

Satan would know about the ritual, he realized. Perhaps he would keep the Miracle in his reach, able to end if it became a threat.

He’d never expected the Miracle to be a human woman of the LAPD, nor had he expected the Devil to stumble upon his undoing on accident. William nearly hugged the hacker he’d paid to bug the Devil’s home.

Satan was in love with God’s Miracle.

With proof in his hands, William had decided against going to the Pope once more. He had already denied him and this could not be allowed to continue.

He went to another who had the Pope’s ear. Instead of going to LA where the Devil resided, William was officially recorded as being sent to Canada on a possession request that had seemed serious. William was their best exorcist after all.

The Pope had agreed and William had bought two tickets. One to Canada with the money supplied by the Vatican, another to LA with his own money.

Yet before he could make his move, Chloe Decker was recorded as having landed in Rome. William felt his heart quicken. With the Miracle out of Satan’s influence, he would be able to make his quest much easier.

She had told him everything, had been willing to listen to his tale of Satan’s evil. He’d killed Cain, she admitted, and his face had changed.

From there, it had been easy to sway her. They’d had a few close calls, as the Miracle faltered when faced once more with Satan, but she’d held true to the cause.

The Pope had been corrected, he was forced to admit, when the exorcism did nothing but cause the Beast pain. When the holy water that had been thrown on Satan’s back revealed pure white wings, William knew why many had fallen victim to the Beast’s words. Masquerading as an angel, sullying the minds of many.

This was no angle, it was evil given an alluring form. Eve and Adam had fallen for its’ tricks but not William. He could only feel disgusted as he gazed on the misleading wings.

Eventually, William had been forced to send the others away. They had been warned that if the exorcism failed, the next option was far more gruesome. They were all Believers, though, and would not break when the Demon came looking for its Master.

Their sacrifice, for sure, the demon would kill them in its quest, was for the Greater Good. Ordained by God, who had picked William as His Messiah.

Satan tried to sway him but William knew how to counter that. Chloe Decker had been the Trojan Horse placed by God to bring the Beast to heel. It had been the human that it thought it loved that had made this possible.

The Beast did not fight, afterward. It could not have anyways, not with the magic granted to him by God binding it.

He’d wasted no time in forgiving. He’d used the knife, fueled by a freely given power of a Miracle in the form of blood, and a symbol of importance that tied Beat and Miracle together.

It was delicious. Satan had given the instrument to his downfall to a Miracle of God, of his own Free Will. William was pleased at the Almighty’s deviousness as he made sure none would ever mistake the Beast for an Angel again.

It had gone dark with no warning as he’d approached Satan once more.

When he woke, Satan was gone and his Demon was there. Accompanied by a humanoid that radiated power.

The being sent the Demon way, to those that Satan had sunk his claws into.

William knew he was dealing with power here. The circle of magic that had kept Satan contained had been obliterated and no sign of chains lurked anywhere. That was fine, he had God on his side.

My Father, who art in Heaven, he began before suddenly he was struggling to breathe, held against a wall by nothing but power. The being spoke but Kinley could not hear.

Just as he woke, darkness claimed him with no warning.

When he came to consciousness, he was surrounded by walls of Silver and what could only be the form of Angels around him.

Perhaps he had not failed in his quest and he was to be given his Reward for his divine mission.

“You do best to Silence yourself, mortal.” The figure from before was at the center. “Less you convince Me to End You right here.”

That wasn’t right, William thought with horror. This figure was God, he had been brought here by God. The Almighty who had assigned him his task. He must have failed, William thought grimly. He had failed and the Lord would have no mercy for he who failed Him.

Had this been the fate of all who had failed to quell the Great Adversary? Had that been why the Pope had refused his divine mission?

“You overstate your importance, mortal.” The Lord stated and no mercy resided in His eyes. “I had thought to Sentence you and be done. You have convinced Me I have allowed things to remain too long. No more.”

Light swirled around them all, the angels steadfast against the onslaught that had left him struggling to remain aware. As his vision cleared, William Kinley could see the wide-eyed faces of humans. Hundreds of them, standing outside the steps of the Vatican where he now stood. The room of angel had vanished though the angels remained. Crowded around, on top of buildings and statues alike. If there was space, it had been filled.

The crowd of humans, easy to spot for the lack of wings and the new cameras they carried, stared back at him. The Pope stood only a few meters away, just a stunned as the crowd. A stadium post with microphones had been knocked over.

There was no press release scheduled for months, William thought in confusion. How long had he been dead?

“Neigh two weeks,” the Lord answered, rage still there. “Be Silent.”

Silence filled the streets as the reporters put together what it was that they were seeing. William Kinley, for the first time, started to feel true fear.

“William Kinley, who dares claim he acts on MY orders, you have been sentenced to Judgement.” The Lord declared. The Almighty did not yell for He had no reason too. Only the growls of the Angels dared to break it. “You were given Forbidden Magic by My son, Uriel, who had Lost his way. Uriel defied My Orders and attempted the Destruction of My Wife, who has since left to a Universe of Her own. Had I known that Uriel had done more before he was Stopped, I would have never left such magic in your hand, mortal.”

A rogue angel, William thought with horror. He had acted on the bequest of a Rogue Angel. There was no denying that, not when facing the rage that had once Flooded the world. Directed at him.

Surely, he could be forgiven. He had not known! Could not have known.

“THAT DOES NOT MATTER,” roared the Lord and the earthquake in answer to His rage. “I care not if you have spoken to Uriel yourself, human. You Harmed MY SON.”

William felt his stomach drop. Had it not been Satan he had captured. Surely it had been. The angel had been using the name of Satan. Surely none of those who remained Loyal had that name.

“You presume much, mortal,” the Lord spat. “You presume that because Samael and I had argued, as I have discovered you mortals have done in your family groupings, has any true meaning. It does not change that he is MY SON.”

This wasn’t supposed to be how it went, William thought as he took in the horror that surrounded him. He had put the clue together, had evidence that showed the Devil’s true colors.

“Human arrogance,” the Lord seethed. “I, who gave you the Free Will to choose for yourself, allowed you to form your own path, am more at fault for that than My Lightbringer. Only you, mortals, can be blamed for the suffering this world endures. Free Will cannot be impeded, not even by Lucifer. He cannot, and has not ever, possessed that ability. Nor,” and there was a spark of amusement in God’s eyes that William knew spelled his doom. “Has he ever enjoyed goats.”

William began to shake as he realized that he would not make it out of this. He had allowed a rogue angel to lead him from the path of the righteous and he would pay for it with his life.

“Do not,” the Lord warned. “Blame another of My children for your deeds, mortal. You, who has caused the death of many of the mentally ill, have never walked the path of righteousness. Do not delude yourself that you are more important than you are, human.”

No! They had been Demons! They had only died because the demon had been expunged from their soul and they were too weak to withstand it!

“No demon has possessed a mortal soul for millennia. A law put into effect by My Lightbringer after he had tamed Hell.” God growled in warning. “The only demon who resides on Earth lives in her own mortal flesh. She is allowed to roam as she pleases, for I have given her permission to. A gift for her Loyalty to My Son, one she has earned.”

The Lord turned to the gathered humans. “I did not come here to correct your presumptions of My child, though I shall do so. I did not reveal Myself and My children to inform you that the missing priests were complicit in an attack on My child and that they have been Dealt with, though I take pleasure in telling you so. This mortal, William Kinley, sought to be above his station and his arrogance nearly cost two of My Children. Lucifer, who was wounded and trapped inside, and Amenadiel who sought to free his brother. Save from this mortal by the very Demon that he sought to also destroy.”

“Humanity has been allowed to forget, for that is the price of Faith. Faith cannot be had if there is proof. There can be no Free Will if you only do as I bid you. I see now, that you require a reminder.” The Lord held his hand and the earth quaked, the sky darkened to black and light vanished from the world. Only the divine light cast by the Almighty Himself remained. “This would be what awaited you, should the Lightbringer had perished. Under my bidding, did Lucifer bring light to existence, and Light has remained his to command ever since. If there is no Lightbringer, there is no Light.”

Everything cleared as the world blinked back into view. William shook at the display of power that the Lord had commanded. Shook with the knowledge that he, William Kinley, had nearly destroyed Light from the world.

Oh, why had he not listened to the Pope, who was the voice of God on Earth? He had forbidden his thought God-given quest, fooling himself into believing that he was the best exorcist in the world and the only that could do the job properly.

“Hear Me, Humanity,” The Lord spoke though He did not move his lips. “My Children will never again come to harm by a mortal, for those that attempt it shall feel My wrath. Be grateful that I am being so merciful. I had considered destroying this place that nearly cost Me two of My children. For if a Miracle created by Myself could cause such damage, what chance stood the rest of you? If not for the loyalty of four humans who prayed for My Lightbringer’s safety, I very well might not have changed My mind.”

William grasped his head as the pain of hearing the Lord’s voice assaulted him. He was not the only one, as those around him fell to their knees. He wished he could follow. Would have, if not the Will of God that he remains standing.

“I have looked into your soul, William Kinley. I have seen every thought, every action, every choice ever given to you. I know everything about you, mortal. And I have Judged you Guilty.” God moved to him. “Destroyed your very soul is not enough to sate My Wrath, I find. So I have come up with a more fitting Punishment.”

William Kinley wanted to scream in agony but his lungs would not work. He wanted to beg for mercy, though he knew that there would be none. Feeling in his legs slowly vanished, before it moved to the rest of his body. As he looked down, he could see stone crawling upwards towards him.

Breathe become impossible, though he’d noticed he hadn’t needed it since they had appeared on the steps of the Vatican, as it reached his lungs. He looked to the Pope, who just stared back in horror at his form.

As the stone encased his head, William Kinley lost the ability to move, his head stuck staring at the horrified eyes of those that had once been his comrades. None moved to help him, for he had brought the Wrath of Heaven upon the Earth and this was his sentence.

“Nevermore shall you be able to cross the threshold into Death,” God spoke with finality. “Heaven and Hell are barred to you forever. You shall spend the rest of eternity with stone, only able to see the world but never interact. I learned My lesson from Cain and I shall not allow another to remain immortal and free to roam. The Father of Murder and Organized Crime,” God shook His head. “Never shall you be moved from this spot. Anywho try will find themselves joining you in your Sentence. William Kinley, you will forever remain a reminder that harm to My Angels, My children, will be answered with no mercy.”

The world watched as God and the Angels of Heaven disappeared as if they were never there. Only William Kinley stood as proof, frozen in stone forever.

* * *

The LAPD was in an uproar as God disappeared from sight with the Angels that He’d brought.

The moment that Officer Dylan had realized what he was watching on his computer, he’d shouted for everyone to pull up the International News.

What followed was the most terrifying thing that any of them had ever seen. Though what could you expect when God himself showed up. The real thing that had sent them reeling was the undeniable resemblance to Lucifer Morningstar, the consultant who had claimed to be the actual Devil.

A consultant that had been missing for a few weeks now.

At the same time, a bunch of priests went missing, leaving behind only human ash to identify them.

“Holy shit, we’ve got the Devil on payroll,” Evans breathed next to him.

Not a single officer corrected him.

“I guess we should change the cause of death to ‘They pissed of God’,” Jane giggled hysterically. The missing priests had been her case, after all. “We should also close them. I don’t know about you but I’m not going to arrest God.”

The thought hung in the air as they stared in horror. “Yeahhhhh,” Erick agreed. “Maybe we should throw the case to the FBI. Does the FBI deal in Acts of God?”

“Does anyone deal in literal Acts of God?” Dylan coughed. “How would that even go? Hey God, you smote a bunch of people that tried to kill Lucifer, who is apparently working for the LAPD as a consultant, could you come down for questioning?!”

Silence reined as they digested that little factoid once more.

“I can’t believe the Devil is a man-slut who steals pudding,” a receptionist laughed. A few of the less Lucifer exposed cops stared at them all as most of the station started to laugh.

“He even tried feeding a hundred-dollar bill into the vending machine.” Amy roared. “I had to explain to him that 1, 5, and 10 were not the same as 100, 500, and 1000. He looked so confused!”

“Remember when he was convinced, he was sleep healing people?” Another asked.

“I mean, that actually seems plausible,” another piped up. “If he’s an angel then he has to have wings. I wonder if he _was_ doing it.”

“Wait, does that mean Smith really is a demon?” Someone broke in.

“Well fuck,” Evans breathed.

“Hey, didn’t he tell Decker that Pierce was Cain?” Amy screeched.

Chaos descended as they tried to digest the sudden shift in their world view.

“Does that mean Decker brought Satan to a case involving Satanists?!”

“Well, that cat’s out of the bag,” Dan winced. God hadn’t been nearly as terrifying the last time he’d met him but that had been brutal.

“The guys are blowing up my phone,” Ella informed, phone indeed in hand. “I’m pretty sure half of LA has made the connection between what just happened and our Lucifer.”

Ella turned to Maze. “They’ve figured out that you’re a demon, too. Neither of you has actually tried to hide it and God mentioned the demon was a female. I think your bounty requests are about to go through the roof.”

Maze looked pleased with that. “Finding damned souls is what I’m best at,” the demon preened.

Dan didn’t doubt that. “I wonder what brought this on. It’s been weeks since Kinley kidnapped Lucifer.”

Very long weeks that had sluggishly gone by as they waited for any sign of Lucifer. Maze seemed to think that Heaven was just running slow right now.

Dan didn’t fight her on it. He was probably better off not knowing what that meant., Linda and Ella remained quiet too.

His own phone was buzzing nonstop in his pocket though he ignored it. He was pretty sure that the station was trying to get him to come in so they could interrogate him. Probably Ella was well, judging by the face she made as she scrolled through her phone.

“They want to know how Chloe is taking it,” Ella finally spoke up.

Dan winced. Yeah, he wasn’t sure how that was going to work out. Chloe wouldn’t be considered insane if she turned herself in after that display. When Lucifer got back, there wouldn’t be any doubt about her involvement when they kept him away from her.

The plan had been that Dan would spread that Lucifer and Chloe had finally had an all-out fight that they couldn’t come back from. It didn’t show either of them in a good light but it would keep Chloe from being committed to an asylum because she thought her partner was the Devil and tried to kill him because of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was at this point I decided that this didn't really fit with the way I wanted the story to progress. I still liked it well enough, which is why I kept it instead of deleting it and starting over. While it wasn't what I wanted, it was still fun to write.


	3. Just Playing Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided to keep take Kinley's trial from Repercussions and bring it together with the worldwide drama that came from the last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure, this started to devolve into crack at the end. I was just letting myself write without following any plan whatsoever. This was just an exercise for me to have fun.

“Do you have anything to say about the missing priests in Los Angeles, California?” A reporter yelled, microphone waving.

Pope Julius the Fourth stood before them. “As of this moment, we are unaware as to the cause behind the twelve missing priests in the United States. We, of course, offer our resources for the LAPD to use as they investigate this matter.”

As cameras flashed and those who needed to jotted down his answer, the Pope readied himself for the next onslaught. The reporters geared up to give it to him.

Neither groups were expecting the storm that appeared overhead, in a sky that had just held no cloud in sight. Thunder roared and rain began pouring down in buckets on top of the unsuspecting humans underneath. Startled yells sounded from everyone gathered as reporters and Vatican staff alike attempted to find shelter from the storm.

Moving en masse into the Vatican itself, the storm raged outside.

“Where did that come from?” a soak staff member asked, phone out. “We aren’t expecting any rain today.”

“Forget that,” a reporter added. “There weren’t even any clouds before that first bought of thunder. They just suddenly appeared! Did you get that on camera, James?”

“You bet,” replied a cameraman, apparently named James.

Before more speculating to continue, thunder interrupted once more. This time, the trembled with it.

“Is this an earthquake?!” Someone yelled.

“Didn’t this happen in LA, when the priests went missing?” Another added as every person in the entryway of the Vatican attempted to stay balanced. With each new clap of thunder, the shaking grew with intensity.

Light’s above them flickered until they blinked out of existence, casting everyone in complete darkness. No light filtered from the windows nor the open door. Instead, an empty abyss consumed them all.

Screams and pleas for help echoed as panic filled the room. It seemed to last for eons and no time at all, everything and nothing converging on them all at once.

Then, as if it had never happened, the lights flickered back on, the earth settled, and the sky was once again without a cloud in sight. No remainder of water remained on the earth outside. The only remaining sign of water to be found was on that of the still soaking wet people and the footage captured on camera.

Silence. There was nothing but silence for and the sound of breathing left behind.

“What the actual fuck.” A reporter finally broke, looking as if he was ready to faint at any moment. “That just happened, right? This isn’t some weird hallucination and I just need some sleep, is it?”

“I’m soaking wet,” another replied, dryly. “Unless your hallucinations can summon water, that just happened.”

“Was that statue always there?” a timid voice broke in.

Almost as one, the gathered crowd of priests, reporters, staff, and the Pope turned to look. The courtyard leading into the Vatican had not just gained a statue. No, this was a massive structure of solid stone that had materialized from the earth, as wide as the steps and as tall as the building itself.

“What.” A reporter closest to the door said, voice deadpan.

Slowly, as if another rainstorm was about to appear to dowse them once more, the crowd outside the Vatican, down the stairs, and slowly rounded the newest addition to the architecture.

Immediately, chaos broke out. Reporters started talking rapid-fire into microphones and cameras, photographers started snapping pictures, and the staff wondered if they should find a new job. The priests and the Pope?

They crossed themselves, fell to their knees, and prayed.

Carved onto the newly made stone, was the first message to Humanity from God since the 10 commandments.

HEAR ME, HUMANITY.

LONG HAVE I WATCHED, HAVE I LISTENED, HAVE I STAYED SILENT TO YOUR PRAYERS, FOR TO YOU I HAVE GIVEN THE GIFT OF FREE WILL. TO SPEAK, IS TO BE OBEYED, AND FREE WILL CANNOT EXIST IF ONE IS FORCED TO OBEY.

HERE, I BREAK MY SILENCE.

I HAVE REMAINED IDLE AND YOU, IN YOUR ARROGANCE, HAVE ASSUMED TO KNOW MY WILL. TO BE MY VOICE.

IN THIS ARROGANCE, YOU HAVE ATTACKED MY CHILDREN, BROUGHT HARM TO THEM WHILE YOU CLAIM IT TO BE MY WILL.

NO MORE.

LET THIS MORTAL, WILLIAM KINLEY, WHO DARED TO HARM MY CHILD BE A LESSON TO YOU. LET HIS FATE GUIDE YOU, FOR I WILL NOT BE MERCIFUL SHOULD YOU PERSIST.

MY LIGHTBRINGER, MY MORNING STAR, IS NOT TO BE TOUCHED. MY ANGELIC CHILDREN ARE NOT TO BE HARMED BY MORTAL HANDS. SHOULD YOU TRESPASS AGAINST THEM, MY CHILDREN OF THE AIR, YOU SHALL FIND YOUR FATE TO BE THAT WHICH HAS BEFALLEN WILLAIM KINLEY.

SO SAY I.

There, underneath the inscription, was the full body of a human encased in stone. Its hands were shackled upwards, knees forced into a kneeling position, all of which was perfectly rendered in full realism.

A female reporter screamed and fell backward.

The eyes perfectly formed out of stone, moved.

* * *

“Ho-ly shit,” Ella breathed.

No one disagreed with her. The entirety of the LAPD was silent as they watched the reporters scramble away from the new stone wall blocking the front of the Vatican.

They’d been watching the press conference in hope that the Pope would announce anything about the missing priest case that hadn’t already been released to them. Instead, they’d just witnessed the first Act of God toward Humanity since the death of Jesus.

Well, the first they knew of, Ella reflected.

“Wait!” Jennifer Walters, the officer in charge of the missing priests. “Wasn’t Father Kinley one of the missing priests reported in the area?!”

There was a beat of silence before the precinct, as one, dived for their computers. Ella knew exactly what they were going to find and didn’t bother moving from her spot, leaning against the vending machine.

“Fuck!” Andrews shouted, papers in hand. “You’re right, William Kinley. Seen last two weeks ago with another priest who later was also reported missing. The only one not to have any human ash turn up for.”

They all digested that. Ella wondered which one of them was going to put it together first. Should she say something?

What would you even say, dummy?! She scolded herself. It’s not like you can just announce that, hey, guys, guess what? I’ve met God! Don’t worry, really cool dude. Like, super overprotective though. Doesn’t like people messing with his kids, Lucifer included. Also, our Lucifer? Turns out he really has been the Devil this whole time! Then Kinley kidnapped and tortured him with a bunch of others, so God’s been smiting some people ever since.

That would go over so well. Even if they didn’t think she’d lost it, they’d start asking questions about everything.

They’d want to know if Chloe knew about it.

Ella wasn’t going to throw Chloe under the bus on purpose, but she wasn’t about to lie for her either. Maybe she would have, once. Not after what she’d done to Lucifer though. After Lucifer had nearly be gone forever because of her.

So, Ella said nothing.

Instead, she turned around and walked away.

What would happen, would happen.

She hoped for Trixie’s sake that Chloe survived the oncoming storm.

It was a brave new world, now.

* * *

Officer Jennifer Walters started dumping out every single file they had on the missing priests the moment Andrews had confirmed the identity of the petrified priest in their files.

“All twelve missing priests local to Los Angeles, California were last seen within LA just over two weeks ago. Witnesses place them all together last when getting into a bus outside of Sunnyside Hotel on the east side. After that, only some of the priests returned to their parishes, where they disappeared later that night. None of the others ever made it back. Human ash was found all over the city, including in the parishes where the priests made it back. DNA matches each of the priests which is why it was handed over to homicide,” Jennifer summarized out loud. “The only priest without any ash trail was William Kinley, a visiting exorcist from the Vatican who was, supposedly, in LA on vacation.”

At least, she thought, he wasn’t there on sanctioned Vatican business.

“Right,” Andrews agreed as he looked over the digital files. “He booked a ticket back but never showed. His hotel room still had all his things and nothing was missing. Last seen on the bus with the other priests.”

Jennifer really, really wanted this to be someone else problem because she was starting to get a feeling that she knew where this whole thing was going. “Hey Richards,” she asked, voice serious.

Richards was the receptionist, he saw everyone who was in and out of the building during the day, every day of the week. He’d only been part-time desk work until a bullet had hit his spine. He survived but was wheelchair-bound and not fit for fieldwork. Instead of letting one of their best minds go because of his legs, the boss had put him on permanent desk work, his choice of what kind. Receptionists, he’d dryly informed them, at least got to talk to people instead of staring at paperwork all day, every day. As a bonus, his degree also complimented the job (not that he’d ever told anyone what, exactly, his degree was in).

He was the best receptionist the station had ever had, though.

“Have you seen Espinoza or Decker today?” she asked.

“Nope,” Richards replied, wheeling further into the room after he’d heard his name. “They both have the next two days off. Family emergency, apparently.”

Because her partner was the best, he caught on immediately to what she was getting to. “You can’t be serious Jennifer. I mean, it’s not possible.”

Jennifer sucked in a breath and tried to calm her racing heart. She wanted to be wrong. She was just a street cop assigned to homicide. The only reason they had her and Andrews working cases was that no one really thought there’d be anything to go on and hadn’t wanted to waste a detective chasing dead ends. So they’d been handed the assignment with the full acknowledgment that it would go nowhere and no one would expect a different outcome.

Instead, one of their missing priests had just been found, petrified alive in stone, having appeared out of nowhere during what could only be an act of God. What really ate at her, what had her sitting up and paying attention, was that inscription.

My Lightbringer, My Morning Star.

Jennifer booted her computer up. She typed the name in the search engine, really hoping that she was remembering wrong. That she could just laugh it off, close the case as Death by God, and be done with the mater.

(Was that going to be a new cause of death they’d have to register? How did one even go about figuring that out?!)

“It could just be a hoax,” Ryan called out from his desk. “You know, something to increase Church attendance.”

He didn’t sound like he believed a word out of his mouth so Jennifer didn’t bother to point out the obvious.

It hadn’t been just the Vatican that had felt the Earthquake, nor had it been just there that every light in the world had gone out. The entire planet had gone dark with the ground shaking underneath them. That was not something anyone could fake. Even now, the international news was reporting quake damage from China all the way to Antarctica to Europe. No one had been spared though there hadn’t been a single injury worldwide.

It that didn’t scream Holy Fuck God is REAL then she didn’t know what did.

Her results came back and she felt her stomach sink.

The name Lucifer can mean ‘bearer of light’ or morning star. In Christian lore, it’s used as the name for Satan before he Fell.

“Bearer of Light,” she said out loud.

“Lightbringer,” Andrews said, looking over her shoulder.

Jennifer grabbed a pen and paper and started writing.

Lucifer Morningstar

Lucifer: Bearer of Light, Lightbringer

Morning Star

Lucifer the Morning Star

Lightbringer the Morning Star

Jennifer closed her eyes and wished, really hard, that she was going to be wrong about this next part. If she wasn’t, the LAPD had been employing the actual Devil for the last few years.

If she wasn’t, their consultant had been attacked and injured, without a single one of them noticing.

“Richards,” she said, and her voice carried as everyone looked at her. They’d heard her question, heard Andrews response. Every single one of them wanted to know what they’d been talking about, Richards included.

It was why the man hadn’t moved back to the front desk yet, though they could all hear the talking of people waiting even from here.

“What do you need, Walters?”

Jennifer closed her eyes and asked. “When was the last time you saw Lucifer Morningstar?”

There. She’d done it.

Please don’t say it, please don’t say it, please-

“About two weeks ago,” Richards answered. “Hasn’t been picking up since, Chief wants me to send him her way so she can take a piece out of for going off-grid.”

The precinct fell into silence.

Two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago when twelve priests went missing as well as a visiting Father Kinley, now encased in stone.

Stone sent by God.

A stone that claimed Kinley had attacked and harmed an angel.

One that specifically mentioned the words Lightbringer and Morning Star.

Jennifer really hated being right.

“Someone get ahold of Decker,” Andrews yelled as it sank it.

Pandemonium erupted.

From the hallway, Jennifer noticed Ella Lopez watching them all with knowing eyes.

* * *

The phone was ringing.

It had been ringing almost nonstop since the world had processed the massive event that had just taken place, live on television. And before anyone could call hoax, the world had descended into darkness as the earth trembled beneath them all.

Chloe knew why they were calling her. She knew what they were going to ask.

It didn’t take a genius to put everything together now that God and Satan were suddenly viable solutions. Especially after all the stunts Lucifer had pulled over the years. Super speed, inability to be locked up, more than once when he should have been either dead or plus a few bullet holes and didn’t have a scratch on him. Throwing a man throw glass with little effort. Hell, that question alone was enough to scream ‘supernatural’ to anyone who cared enough to look.

No one had, though. He’d even told them, over and over. They’d all written him off as a nutcase who thought he was Satan.

In truth, he was a nutcase who actually was Satan.

Big difference, Chloe had learned.

Had thought she had learned.

And now God had decided to tell the world to back of His kids or smiting would be the least of humanities problems.

She could respect that. She would have done the same for Trixie. Would still do the same for Trixie.

If Trixie ever talked to her again, that was.

Thing was, Chloe wasn’t certain what was going to happen now. God had just outed every angel in existence as real with the appearance of that stone tablet. No one could deny that. Every single reporter there had caught everything, from the clear skies that turned to storm in a clash of thunder all the way to the inscription on the tablet.

Worse, it seemed that everyone in the world could read it. It wasn’t English, for all that it looked like it to Chloe, just like it wasn’t Russian though it looked like it to those in Russia.

She wondered how accurate that Tower of Babel story had been.

She would never know, Chloe mused, because she didn’t have anyone to ask.

At least she got her answer on what had happened to Kinley. Chloe was suddenly a lot more grateful for her own punishment as she doubted that they’d seen all there was to it yet. So far, no one had tried to break Kinley out, in fear of bringing the Wrath of God on their heads.

Since that could be a real possibility, Chloe did not blame them at all. Plus, a small part of her was glad to see that the priest got what was coming to him. She’d been resigned to never knowing what had happened to him before her own punishment started. It wasn’t a nice thought; not that Chloe cared, she was Hell-bound anyways so what did it matter? It wasn’t like she was any more likely to end up in Hell no matter what she did now.

And she deserved every bit of it.

So she sat alone in her mom’s house while she looked for a new apartment. Maze might have still been paying rent for the old one but Chloe couldn’t justify it. Maze was doing it for Trixie and Trixie had refused to speak a word to her since Chloe had come clean.

Mostly clean, Chloe amended. She’d never gotten to tell her daughter that she’d been the one to poison Lucifer, to get him vulnerable so they could take him easier. That it had been her blood, freely given, that had helped power the magic that had been killing him.

That if not for her, none of this would have ever happened. Lucifer would likely still be sitting in his penthouse, playing the piano while humanity pretended that Satan wasn’t running a nightclub and solving crime in LA.

It was amazing what denial allowed you to rationalize, Chloe thought dryly.

She sighed and the phone continued to ring.

Maybe she should move, Chloe thought. What was left for her here? Trixie hated her, Dan hated her, Maze would gut her, and if given the chance, Linda would probably help Maze, and Ella couldn’t even look at her. She was also never going to see Lucifer again, and if she didn’t, he would never forgive her.

Or worse, he would.

Chloe didn’t think she could live with herself if he forgave, still. If he forgave her, it would be because he thought that he’d deserved it. That she had been perfectly in her right to do something like that to him. He’d believe every single word of it.

It made her sick to think about.

The phone caught her attention again. This time it was her mom.

She ignored that too.

They would all find out what she did, now. There was no way to hide it, not when she’d been seen talking to Kinley in public more than once. If they asked her about it, she wouldn’t lie; Lucifer didn’t deserve the lie.

Even worse, Lucifer would be forced to answer correctly if they directly asked him any questions. He didn’t lie and Chloe knew he wasn’t going to suddenly develop the ability now. Not for her.

Amenadiel wouldn’t let him, even if Lucifer tried it. The Angel hadn’t made another appearance in-person single that night but Chloe knew that he’d be back when Lucifer was.

There was also Lucifer’s Twin, Michael, to think about. Michael had been the last domino to fall before Chloe’s pretense that nothing was wrong had crumbled around her. Looking into that familiar face and seeing a stranger where a friend had once looked back, even if it was only a copy, had shredded her last bit of denial. Forced her to admit this hadn’t all just been a horrible dream that she was going to wake up from at any moment.

This wasn’t the type of nightmare that you could wake up from, though.

Could she face her colleagues and tell them she’d poisoned Lucifer? Helped to nearly kill him? Was part of the reason for calling down the God’s wrath on their heads? Would she ever be able to go back to work again if she did?

Lucifer was well-liked in the precinct. He’d been standoffish at first, annoying and pushing at second, but had become sweet and obliviously endearing to them all as time went on. When Pierce had died and it had come out that he’d been the Sinnerman, the precinct had rallied around Lucifer and Chloe both.

Lucifer was their crazy consultant who brought in way too expensive sweets, smuggled a gourmet coffee maker into the break room because they hated the one they had, and stole Dan’s pudding for every reason and no reason at all. To the point where the precinct had started donating pudding for the ‘Lucifer feeding fund’.

Chloe had always thought Lucifer had been aware of the whole thing, had been doing it on purpose. Now Chloe thought he’d been way too oblivious to know that Dan hadn’t needed to buy his own pudding in almost a full year now. It was just a habit now, another way to tease Dan that was guaranteed not to hurt the mans’ feelings as his other affectionate pranks had done.

(Lucifer had a weird idea of how you showed affection. Harassment was not the answer.)

(Actually, if demons were all like Maze and that’s all he’d interacted with for the last few millennia, then he was doing a lot better than Chloe had given him credit. He could be throwing sharp objects at people he liked instead.)

(Chloe hated to admit that she missed random sharp things hitting the wall in front of her whenever she walked, from time to time.)

Next to her, the phone continued to ring.

It remained unanswered.

* * *

Dan looked at Maze.

Maze looked at him.

The precinct stared at them both.

“I blame you,” Maze stated.

Dan sputtered. “How is this my fault?! God just raised a giant stone tablet with a petrified Kinley, who is apparently fully aware because I needed that nightmare! How am I responsible for that, Maze?!”

Maze thought for a second. “I don’t know. I’m still blaming you.”

“Demons!” Dan threw up his hand, giving up. He suddenly had a lot more sympathy for the many times that Lucifer had complained about demons over the years. If Maze was the best example of a demon, he shuddered to think of the worst.

Not that he’d ever tell her that, thank. He liked living if that’s cool with everyone.

“Soooo,” Andrews finally spoke. Dan looked toward the cop, waving for him to continue. “Maze is an actual demon.”

“Yup,” Maze answered, grinning.

“And Lucifer Morningstar really is the actual Devil,” Walters added.

“Apparently,” Dan answered dryly. “I’m still wrapping my head around that one too. I mean, he steals my pudding!”

There were a few hesitant laughs before silence won out.

“And the missing priests?” Walters asked, almost as if she didn’t want to know.

Dan winced. This was where it got really tricky.

Damn Chloe and her sudden refusal to answer the phone. He’d gone looking for her, but she wasn’t at her apartment, her mom’s, or even LUX (he’d been desperate, okay?). In fact, she wasn’t anywhere. The only thing he’d been able to find had been her gun and badge. Underneath had been a letter of resignation.

His ex-wife had disappeared off the face of the earth and that left him to explain what was happening and why to their coworkers.

So much for coming clean, Dan snorted. It’s all fine when it was just Trixie but owning up to our coworkers? That’s too much, huh. I fucked up but at least I didn’t pull a runner, Chloe.

He’d handed the three items to Monroe, back while they looked for a non-organized crime boss to take over as lieutenant. That had been what had prompted this interrogation by the entire precinct, with Walters and Andrews at the front. Apparently, Walters was the first to put the connection of the missing priests together with the last time anyone had seen Lucifer.

They probably would have gotten there eventually. Maybe.

Or maybe it always would have taken God remodeling the Vatican grounds for them to look at Lucifer again. Though not in a suspect way, this time, but as a victim.

Which he was, actually.

Of twelve priests, a stone Vatican exorcist, and Chloe.

Now how did he tell everyone they worked with that?

So help me, Chloe, if you show up after making me do this, I’ll shoot you myself! Dan swore. He didn’t bother keeping that part silent.

“God smote them,” Maze answered before he could.

Silence.

Dan swore again.

Jail time would be worth it.

* * *

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Raphael asked, fusing as she went over every inch of him. Lucifer allowed his sister to reposition him as she pleased, having decided it was much less work to not argue against her.

“Luci will be fine,” Michael answered instead. His Twin had been doing that a lot, Lucifer had noticed. Before Lucifer could even ask him, Michael would get between whatever was causing him the even slightest distress and deal with it.

His efforts did not work on their sister. Lucifer wasn’t sure why Michael thought it would.

Raphael glared at them both. “If I find so much as a scratch on either of you, I will lock you both in here until I’m satisfied you’ve started taking your health seriously. That mean no. Cutting. Off. You. Wings.” She pointed at Lucifer. “And no doing something so stupid, like purposely going to piss of demons because you’re bored!”

She pointed at Michael with that one.

“When did that happen?” Lucifer wondered, looking at his Twin.

“Your Maze was guarding the humans as well,” Michael answered. “She took exception to the way I said certain things. It was entertaining.”

Ah, that would do it. Lucifer snorted, wings shifting in amusement. Michael had always been good at getting on people’s nerves, especially at pretending he wasn’t doing it on purpose. He’d never warned Maze about that, not expecting her to ever need that knowledge, so Michael would have been taking full advantage. “How many times did she nearly gut you?”

Michael looked smug. “Fifty-two.”

Raphael growled at both of them, furious.

Lucifer immediately returned his face to the serious one he’d started with. Michael copied him.

Their sister glared, not impressed.

“They’ll be fine,” Amenadiel finally saved them. “I’m going with and I’ll keep Maze from murdering Michael and Lucifer from finding a new, interesting way of injuring himself. Now give them the clear before both of them start acting on their escape plan. They’ve been quiet for the entire time I’ve been talking and that scares me.”

Lucifer didn’t know what Amenadiel was talking about, honest.

Michael gave their brother sad eyes.

Raphael broke and laughed. “It’s good to have you both here,” she said before Lucifer suddenly found himself in her grasp.

He stiffened, arms gesturing as he tried to remember what he was supposed to be doing with them. Tentatively, he wrapped them around his sister, hoping that was what was expected.

Beatrice had certainly seemed to think so. Michael shrugged when he looked to his Twin for help.

Amenadiel sighed.

Eventually, Raphael released them from her care. “Remember, no overdoing it, Luci. I’ll be checking on you in a week, Earth time. If you’ve somehow injured yourself in that time, I’ll drag you back and keep you here until I think you’ve learned self-preservation.”

She would too, Lucifer had seen it happen to more than one of his younger siblings.

He could manage a week.

Probably.

“Not a scratch,” Michael nodded. Before Raphael could comment, they took off.

With Michael guiding, it took no time to land in his penthouse. Lucifer had to blink a moment as he took in everything. While the furniture was still his, many new items had been strewn about the place. Some of them he recognized as belonging to the Spawn.

It was about that time that the Squeal which had become his warning of imminent Offspring sounded from behind him. He had enough time to turn and catch the child as she launched herself at him.

“Lucifer!” she laughed and wrapped her arms around him in joy. “You’re back!”

“Hello,” he greeted. “Spawn, why are you wearing my shirt?”

She looked down at herself, draped in one of his more casual shirts over her other clothes. It looked ridiculous. Oddly, Lucifer found himself calling it endearing.

Michael frowned. “Is that my scarf?”

And yes, around her waist was a scarf. Pure white dotted with black, a look that very much screamed Michael to him. Beatrice was using it as a belt to keep Lucifer’s shirt in place.

The little manipulator looked at them with wide, sad eyes. “Do you want me to take them off?”

Both twins shook their heads before looking away. Lucifer felt vindicated that he wasn’t the only one unable to deny the child something she’d clearly wanted.

Like using his shirt for a dress and Michael’s scarf as a belt.

He still wasn’t sure why that was okay but fetch was a no-go.

“Lucifer?” One Ella Lopez asked, voice faint and filled with hope. Lucifer turned around, white wings still very much on display, to see Ella, Dan, and what was most definitely more than one of the LAPD standing in the open door of the elevator. A glance at Michael told him that his twins’ black wings were just as visible.

“I suppose it’s a good thing Dad already did the expose Divinity bit,” Amenadiel deadpanned as he landed. “Otherwise the both of you would be in so much trouble right now. You weren’t even out of my sight for five seconds!”

Lucifer looked at Michael. Michael looked at Lucifer.

“I blame Azrael,” they said at the same time.

Amenadiel sighed.

“Does anyone want to explain why our consultant, who is apparently the literal Devil, has managed to multiply?” Ryan Sinclair asked.

“He hasn’t multiplied,” Trixie said from Lucifer’s arms. “The one with the Black Wings is Michael. Lucifer’s Twin.”

“Hello,” Michael waved. “I’ve been informed this is the correct greeting.”

Amenadiel looked like he wanted to hit them both. “Michael, stop trolling humans. Lucifer, stop laughing you’re encouraging him. Trixie, it’s time to get off Lucifer now. If you break him, Raphael is going to smite us all.”

“She’s a small child!” Lucifer protested. “How can she break me?”

“I don’t know, but you’d find a way!” Amenadiel shouted, pointing. “Michael, I can very much see you and you’re to put the cake right back where you picked it up from or so help me I will tie both of you up!”

Michael pouted and returned the cake to the table.

“The Archangel Michael,” Ella introduced. “Twin to Lucifer and complete troll. You’ll never catch either of them in a lie but you should really pay attention because those two are the most slippery assholes when it comes to the truth. Unless you get a straight answer, question everything out of their mouths.”

Lucifer pouted. “I resent that.”

“I concur.” Michael agreed.

“So you didn’t talk Azrael into turning Gabriel pink and pinning it on Sariel, who then turn Ariel green because you pinned Ariel as the one who pinned it on Sariel. Which in turn started a full-on prank war and now half the host is covered in rainbow.” Amenadiel deadpanned. “All of which you conveniently missed out on since you were still staying with Raphael.”

Lucifer and Michael smirked wickedly.

“Yup, there’s the nightmares,” one Dan Espinoza announced. “I vote that no one targets he who brings free pudding and gummy bears.”

Lucifer perked. “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, there was no real goal for this chapter. I was just playing with the characters and letting myself just write. It wasn't like I could do anything else at the time, so I ended up doing a lot of this. Sometimes writing without any real goal in mind is pretty rewarding and a fun exercise.


	4. Reintroductions Draft 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first draft of Reintroductions, the fourth part of this series

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There wasn't anything really wrong with this draft, I just wasn't happy with it. I think it was one of those days that I wasn't happy with anything that I wrote. Either way, I like the final draft better in the end, so it all worked out.

The statue of William Kinley, plaque and all, went viral almost immediately. Social media and news stations alike were flooded with constant surveillance of the statue as investigators worked. The moving eyes have become a meme overnight, to the distress of most religious figures.

Within the day, a representative of the Vatican had indeed identified the statue’s image to be an exact replica of a missing William Kinley, who had gone off-grid nearly three weeks prior. When investigators put his last location in LA, the press immediately made the connection to the twelve missing priests that had been reported at the same time Kinley had last been heard from.

By day two, investigators confirmed that there was nothing about the statue that would give it the ability to move its eyes like it was. As far as they could tell, the eyes should be just as immobile as the rest of the statue.

It was also discovered that the stone of the statue traveled deep into the ground as if it had just sprouted up during the night. Any attempt at moving the statue or breaking it away from the ground resulted in headaches and demolished equipment, with not even a mark being left of the stone. Someone, in a fit of desperation, had taken a sledgehammer and a chisel to it. The chisel had been demolished and the sledgehammer had warped to the shape of the statue it hit.

That one had been caught on camera by an observer. It had gone viral within the hour of being posted.

On the third day, it was finally announced that the statue was confirmed to be the real deal. Sampling swabs from the stone had provided a DNA match, which was in itself a Big Deal, to one missing Father William Kinley. The internet had exploded at the news, crashing more than on social media sites, as people lost their collective minds.

The Vatican proclaimed it to be the first Act of God to have taken place in the modern world. The church attendance rate saw a never before seen high as people flocked to the stands. Preachers spent mass speculating about the message left and what the meaning behind it could mean.

The UN scrambled to find any footage of the statue’s appearance. The closest that any could find was a clip from 2:15 am, where one second there was no statue, and in the next, it was fully in place. Techs had confirmed that the footage was untampered with.

Once day number four rolled around, it was becoming widely accepted that the world was witnessing a true, modern-day miracle.

No attempt to communicate with Kinley had been successful, though the eyes did follow the movement of anyone around the statue. Theories about the reason behind the lack of communication ranged from Kinley simply not being aware to it being part of the punishment that had him as a statue in the first place. The latter of the various groups was outnumbered by the rest.

In short, chaos was raining throughout the world verbal fights, along with some physical fights, broke out. Various religions began screaming at each other, each one wanting to claim that their version of events were the correct ones, in wake of this modern Miracle.

Meanwhile, atheists did their best to find a local explanation for it all.

In the middle of it all, five days after the statue first appeared, an Angel appeared to humanity for the first time in thousands of years.

The moment her Father had finished relay His message to her, Gabriel had wanted to practically leap for joy.

It had been literal eons since she had been given a job to fulfill. With every passage of time, she’d become more and more anxious and restless. Now that she had a job, Gabriel was more than happy to complete it with the best of her abilities. The best part had been His promise that this was only the first of many to come.

The contents of the message itself had made everything that much better for her.

With a spread of wings, she had appeared in full view in front of the statue form of William Kinley. Her wings on display and having appeared out of thin air, the humans had immediately silenced themselves out of shock.

That had always been her favorite part, she thought as she looked at the shocked faces around her. Gabriel’s wings preened under the attention, golden feather’s highlight the gold of her hair and the silver of her eyes and pearlescent skin. There was a reason that humans associated Silver and Gold with Jesus’ birth.

“Hello,” she greeted happily. “Be not afraid and all that jazz.”

Okay, so maybe she was bit too excited. Give her a break, she had been jobless for eons and the joy of just talking to something outside the Silver City was addicting. She really should have for a task much sooner instead of waiting for their Father to need to deliver a message. She was sure there was something that she could have been doing in the in-between. She would have even covered Azrael’s role for a day or two so her sister could take a break every once in a while.

That, she remembered, was not what was important at the moment. “Right, so, first things’ first. William Kinley, aided by twelve priests, attacked, tortured, and nearly killed one of my siblings. In punishment, Father has decreed he is to be trapped within stone until the End of Days, where his soul will be destroyed with the rest of Earth.”

Silence.

Had humans always been this silent when she spoke? Gabriel could swear that even Mary had said something to her. Even if it had been a incredulous question about the nature of her pregnancy and the fact that a feathered woman had appeared out of thin air in her house.

A swear word or two would at least let her know that she hadn’t broken them! Father had been very clear that He would keep any of the effects that seeing her wings would cause to a minimum, so it couldn’t be her wings.

“Ooookay.” She continued after the quiet just got a bit too much for her. “Second, the human governments of the world will be contacted by a few angelic dignitaries. Father has declared that it is time for the angels to start interacting with the world once more. I would expect a few of my siblings to be coming and going in the next few months. I’m sure that you’ll get the full explanation then, as I wasn’t giving anything else on that matter before I was sent.”

……..

Wow, these guys were really just going to stand there staring at her, huh?

It was starting to make her wings twitch.

“Lastly,” she said, deciding to just get this over with. “Father has announced that an angel that is seen on Earth has the full permission of the Lord. This includes our brother, Lucifer the Morning Star, who’s punishment has been declared fulfilled. Any attack on the Morning Star or any other angel will be punished with the full wrath of God.”

Her message done, Gabriel didn’t bother waiting to see if the humans were going to react or just continue starting. Father had told her that she could explore a bit before returning to the Silver City.

Gabriel fully planned to see everything that she could before she had to go back home. She was most intrigued by some of the ‘theme parks’ she’d seen in a few of the Heavens of small children.

A spread of her golden wings and Gabriel was gone before the first of the humans finally processed her presence.

* * *

Ella watched as all her coworkers seemingly lost their minds in the span of a few minutes.

At first, when the news had first been relayed during the station, everyone had been sure it was just a hoax that some religious fanatic had come up with to cause some chaos. With the amount of screaming from them on the internet, Ella couldn’t really blame her more logically inclined coworkers for their doubt. If she hadn’t been in the know, she wasn’t sure what she would think of everything that was going on.

The internet had nearly crashed entirely in the following days. Ella hadn’t been able to look at any social media site without seeing yet another re-blog of the more interesting attempts to move Kinley’s statue. Which, she grimaced, super harsh, that.

Not that she didn’t totally get where the Big Guy was coming from. Kinley so deserved to be punished! It was just the thought of being trapped in stone, unable to move a single muscle or even respond to anyone, until the Apocalypse when he was still going to end up smote? It gave her hives whenever she thought of it.

Putting him on the UNOG grounds on display, surrounded by the flags of each country in the UN, did not make it any better. She really felt for the employees that were going to have to see Kinley, all day every day. Until the end of time

So yeah, Ella had been hardcore avoiding the internet after her last bout of hives over the whole thing. She got her updates whenever she left the labs, as it was one of the only things that were being discussed in the precinct at the moment.

Jennifer Walters, the officer in charge of the missing priest investigation, had connected Kinley to the rest of them. Since Kinley was the only one who hadn’t had a corresponding pile of human ash to link to, the early investigation had only listed him as a possible victim. Ella wasn’t the forensic scientist tied to that case, so she hadn’t been consulted at all and hadn’t known that Kinley had been listed at all. She so would have warned Maze if she had.

It wasn’t hard to connect the rest of the dots from there. Ella had watched in a bit of wonder as Walters mapped out the last sightings of each priest, Kinley now included, and come up with the same part of town that Maze and Amenadiel have said Lucifer was taken to. If that wasn’t some amazing police work, then Ella wasn’t sure what was.

Like, seriously, it was pretty much assumed that the missing priest case was going to go cold long before anyone could come up with an explanation. Walters, once she’d connected Kinley to it, had gotten farther than any of the other cops who’d passed it off to her had. Monroe looked impressed too, Ella noted.

She wondered how long it would take Walters to get promoted, now that they had a detective opening.

Chloe’s empty desk stood out clearly to her, whenever she walked past that part of the station. Ella was furious with the blond; she wasn’t going to lie about that. She didn’t know if she’d ever forgive Chloe for what she’d done to Lucifer. Still, she missed the times she could just go over and hang out with her, during the day. She missed the really weird, but now a lot more reasonable, questions Chloe always had about religion.

In short, she missed the friend that she’d lost.

Dan missed her too, Ella knew. She could see it with every glance the guy sent at Chloe’s old desk and the slumping of his shoulders. They’d been married for years, had a daughter together, and still managed to be friends after everything. It made sense that Dan would miss her. No one ever really talked about it, and they probably never would, but it felt a bit empty without Chloe there.

Chloe brought this on herself, Ella reminded herself, shaking her head. If it had been anyone else that she’d done this too, Chloe would have been awaiting trial in jail right now for attempted murder at best. There wasn’t a judge in the world that would believe a seasoned homicide detective wouldn’t have known exactly what that ‘sedative’ was.

As it was, Chloe was getting a second chance far away from LA and everything that had gone on. Ella wished her the best of luck; she really did. She might never forgive Chloe for her role, that didn’t mean that she didn’t want her to be happy. None of them really knew what God had decided as her punishment so whatever happiness Chloe could find, Ella wouldn’t begrudge her for it.

Before she could contemplate on it anymore, Ella could hear swearing startup from the break room.

Curious, the scientist followed a few of her nosier coworkers to see what had set of that cussing streak. Peering in, Ella could see that the TV was tuned to CNN. There, for the world to see, standing next to Kinley, was an Angel.

Well damn, she thought. You guys sure do work fast, huh?

Pearlescent skin, bright silver eyes, and more gold accents than Ella thought was reasonable, the Angel on the news looked like a walking Christmas tree topper. The upbeat cheerfulness did absolutely nothing to dim the otherworldly aura that Ella could see even in video.

She didn’t really blame the people on-site for not making a noise during the whole thing. Something about the Angel, even just on the TV, made you want to listen without interruption.

Maybe also bask in her presence, too.

Holy cow, she thought with feeling. And I thought Lucifer’s effect on people was loco. Seriously, Big Guy, your kids are really something else.

That was when she realized what, exactly, the angel had been saying.

Shit is going to start hitting the fan now, Ella thought she slowly extracted herself from the area. She really was going to have to call Maze and give the demon a heads up.

None of her coworkers were stupid. Kinley and twelve priests go missing, all turning up either encased in stone by God or in pile of ashes after being smote (though everyone was carefully avoiding that word so far), and an angel announces that they used deadly force against an angel? Then proceeds to announce that the Devil’s been walking around and is included in the ‘hands-off’ decree God’s made on Angels?

Added to the fact that Lucifer’s ‘break-in’ happened at the same time as the missing priests? And Lucifer was still nowhere to be found weeks later. It didn’t take that long to recover from a simple break-in. The only reason no one had mentioned it yet was that they’d all figured his absence was because Chloe had left.

Someone was going to connect the dots sooner or later, though. Lucifer had never really been quiet about telling people he was the Devil. Now that angels were suddenly a very real thing, a lot of people were going to remember all the loco stuff Lucifer did all the time and start believing him.

Maze was gonna be so pissed that all her work to keep the LAPD calm while Lucifer recovered was for nothing. She’d been really smug about how it had all worked out.

Hopefully, they would have time to come up with a solution before things spiraled too far.

As Ella sped towards her lab, she didn’t notice a pair of eyes following her away from the chaos.

* * *

Lucifer could feel the anxiety start to rise as Raphael carefully checked him over. His wings were devoid of any remaining pain and he could move freely without needing to be attached to Michael’s side.

Four months in the Silver City had done a lot to further his healing past anything he could have managed on Earth. After that first month, Lucifer had even slowly allowed himself to believe that his family still cared for him. At the very least, he had accepted that he wasn’t going to find himself kicked out before he was at least mostly healed.

Still, he was reluctant to stay much longer and overstay his welcome. Once Raphael cleared him, Lucifer doubted that it would take long for his siblings to lose interest in him once more. Right now, they were still reeling from the attack and his near demise. That care could easily change when he was free to roam outside of the infirmary and the constant reminder of why, exactly, he was there.

Meaning that Lucifer was beyond ready to get back to Earth and the humans that he had waiting for him there. The urge to ascertain their safety for himself had been slowly chipping away at his nerves the moment his wings were fully healed.

He wanted to go home.

“From what I can tell, you should be fine to cross-dimensional barriers now,” Raphael finally announced. “There’s still some damage from the Enochian Magic left in your system, however, so you’re going to have to be careful of how much you push yourself until it fades. We don’t know what will happen if it flares up or how it will affect you long term yet.”

Lucifer nodded, grimacing. He could still feel that curl of foreign magic in his limbs whenever he sat still for long enough. It was enough to make him want to crawl out of his own limbs at times. His jagged edges weren’t nearly as sharp as they had been early on, those not fully healed at least scabbed over and, on their way, to fading. Michael had been a key component of that, according to his sister.

They all carefully pretended that had Lucifer and Michael not been Twins, there was a good chance Lucifer never would have been healed. Without his other half there to balance him out while he healed, Lucifer could have slipped back into a coma at more than one point in the last few months.

There had been a few scares even with Michael, Lucifer remembered. Times where he had just suddenly blackout and woken to find Raphael panicking over him, with Michael’s grip around him tighter than it had been just moments before.

He always felt like a burden during those times, though he kept that to himself. He wasn’t sure how any of his siblings would have responded if he’d voiced those thoughts out loud.

He didn’t want to cause them any more pain and, for some reason, the thought that Lucifer found himself a burden on them would cause them pain. It was baffling, really, but he was sure that Linda could explain it to him when he filled her in on what had been going on.

Linda was usually good at helping him figure out his own feelings, even if sometimes he didn’t fully grasp the advice she’d been trying to give him.

“I will keep an eye on him,” Michael promised from beside him. Lucifer relaxed a bit at the reminder that his Twin was planning on coming with him back to Earth. He’d been a bit worried about it at first when he’d first started making enough progress that returning to Earth was becoming a more attainable goal.

Michael had thought he was being stupid before bluntly informing him that Lucifer was not going to be leaving his sight for more than a few hours for the next millennia if Michael had anything to say about it. Since Father hadn’t once forbidden Michael from caring out that plan, they had figured that the Almighty approved and was not going to stop them.

Raphael nodded, satisfied with that. “Make sure to call immediately if he shows any signs of backsliding. We still aren’t sure of the full effects yet and we can’t take any chances of the magic being triggered somehow.”

Lucifer didn’t bother pointing out that he was standing right there, just let the two continue their conversation. Raphael had sat him threw a five hour lecture the first time he mistakenly told her that it was nothing to worry about. Really, he grumbled silently, he’d spent eons in hell and had managed to survive just fine. A little pain wasn’t something to be all that upset about, in the long run. The pain was something he’d gotten used to before the burns from the Fall had healed completely.

He really didn’t understand why his sister had been so upset by that. He wasn’t, however, willing to risk another lecture so soon. He couldn’t change Raphael's decision to keep him longer due to ‘being a danger to himself’. Letting Michael do the talking was the easiest way to be allowed out of this place, so Lucifer kept quiet.

His Twin, thankfully, kept his mutinous thoughts quiet. While Michael might not agree with Lucifer’s opinions of things, he wasn’t going to rat him out to their sister any more than Lucifer would announce Michael's thoughts out loud. It was a deal that they had made when they were younger, and their thoughts intermingled more.

The worst part of Hell had been the absence of his Twin’s thoughts brushing against his mind. Never had his head been so quiet before. It had made the pain of his burns more prominent and consuming than they actually were.

“Alright,” Raphael sighed. “You’re fit to leave.”

It took a second for the words to register in his brain. Once they did, Lucifer felt his wings perk in response to his relief.

Michael’s hand kept him from booking it back towards Earth. A look from his twin had him turning his attention to the hopeful faces of his siblings.

It was a look that they’d used to give him when they wanted to come with him to see his stars. Hopeful and longing, filled with pleas that had always made him anxious to soothe away whatever hurt he could.

It had been such a long time since he’d seen that look last.

Lucifer felt himself freeze underneath it now. Something warm and slightly familiar, though he couldn’t place it, burned in his core.

He didn’t know what they wanted from him, now.

_‘Michael?’_ he asked, letting the confusion and slight fear leak between them.

_‘We’ve missed you,’_ his Twin answered in response. _‘They don’t want to go back to eons of no contact.’_

There was honesty in his Twin’s response and still, Lucifer couldn’t really believe it. He’d lost hope of having his family back so long ago that the idea of it was almost impossible to him now. It had always been made clear that he was no longer part of their numbers in the silence that answered whenever he called out for them.

He had called out for them a lot when he’d first Fallen.

By the time Mazikeen came across him, Lucifer had resigned himself to never seeing them again, beyond a stolen look here and there when they roamed the Earth. After Father had decreed Earth to be off-limits, Lucifer had accepted that Amenadiel and Azrael were the only siblings he’d ever see again.

That they would miss him, now that he was leaving once more, was a foreign concept.

“Right,” he said, still thrown. There was, to his horror, hope stirring in his chest. He blamed it for what he said next. “You should come to visit,” he rushed, not wanting the words to get stuck in his throat. “Amenadiel knows where I live.”

He grabbed Michael and fled before he could see the expression on their faces.

* * *

Landing back in his penthouse at LUX was a balm to his soul.

The tension that had been with him constantly in the Silver City eased from his muscles as the smell of alcohol, humans, and Earth filled his nose. He could hear the movement from the club bellow and feeling the swaying bodies that danced to the music.

A glance around showed him that his room was just as he left it, all the way up to and including the discarded clothing that he’d left on the floor. He hadn’t, Lucifer remembered, wanted to wear one of his normal suites to his date with the Detective.

It hurt to look at the clothes, so he turned his attention to his Twin.

Michael was surveying the room, taking in every detail. His Twin has confided that he hadn’t wanted to invade Lucifer’s space without permission and had, therefore, kept away from the bedroom. The luxury bedroom felt complete in his Twin’s presence as if it had been missing something before.

Lucifer wondered if he’d sleep better with his twin by his side once more. He’d always had trouble fully relaxing no matter how tired he was during his time on Earth. He’d put it down to remnants of Hell. You couldn’t sleep for long in Hell, and never deeply. Not unless you wanted to find a sword in your back.

Demons, for the most part, could not be trusted. Mazikeen had always been the outlier, not the norm, amongst her kind. The result of being Lilith’s first child, Lucifer had always thought.

He’d had no such troubles while in the Silver City, Michael curled up next to him.

The breaking glass had Lucifer jumping, wings flaring as his heart pounded. Whirling, he found Linda looking straight at him, broken glass and water around her feet.

Michael and Maze had talked them into staying in the penthouse while he was unconscious, Lucifer remembered. A way to make it easier to keep an eye on the humans.

He tried to smile at her. It wobbled despite his efforts. “Linda,” he greeted, quietly.

There was a beat of silence before he felt arms impact with his person, pulling him into a hug. He stiffened, caught off guard at the sudden assault. A glance down showed him Linda hadn’t been the only one here.

Beatrice was crying, latched onto him in the same manner she had since the very first time. Instead of attempting to remove her, like he usually did, Lucifer felt almost comforted by the familiarity. Carefully, as to avoid upsetting her more, he gently pat her head. “Spawn,” he greeted.

He looked around, taking in the changes in furniture and the items that no doubt belonged to the humans that had been staying there. Somehow, they felt right instead of clashing with the decor.

“I’m home,” he announced. 

It had never felt as true as it did right then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I don't hate this version, I like the one that I went with a lot better than what I had going on here.


	5. Lucifer's meeting with Monroe, version 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much what it says in the title.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this version, there was no press conference and the LAPD hadn't connected Kinley with Lucifer yet. I wrote this back during Repercussions, so nothing from the fics following it is going to show up in this. At the time, I wasn't sure if I wanted Lucifer to meet with the LAPD before or after they connect Kinley to him.

Lucifer had been back on Earth three days when he was called into the LAPD by Olivia Monroe.

He’d gotten back in the swing of things by then. Beatrice had, instead, soaked his pants with tears the moment she’d entered the penthouse to see both Lucifer and Michael on the couch. Daniel had tossed him a bag of gummy bears with a soft greeting once the child had released him.

Later, Ella had all but tackled him to the ground in her own greeting a few hours later.

That night, he’d done his first set since the incident. The familiarity had done a lot for his nerves and quite a few regulars had been happy to chat with him afterward.

All of it almost convinced him that nothing had changed. Lucifer had allowed himself to forget the reason for his absence as he moved about his life as he had for the last few years. He hadn’t spent every single day with Chloe and she had never been a part of the normal crowd in LUX, so her absence wasn’t felt in the mood of the nightclub.

The call from Monroe had reminded him of just what had changed.

Staring at the building that housed the LAPD, Lucifer felt the knot in his chest return with a vengeance. Walking through those doors and not seeing familiar blond hair waiting for him was going to hurt, he knew. Chloe, according to Maze, had taken a job away from LA, so he knew that he wasn’t going to run into her here.

That almost hurt just as much as seeing her again would, Lucifer grimaced. In all the scenarios that he’d thought of, Chloe leaving LA forever before he returned was not one of them. There was no note, no message on his phone, no forwarding address. She was gone, leaving Lucifer with their date as his last memory of her.

He didn’t know if that made things better or worse.

Steeling himself, Lucifer walked through the familiar doors. He was greeted by complete chaos.

The precinct had never been the quietest of places yet Lucifer didn’t remember this much insanity as being the norm. Phones were ringing non-stop, the lobby was full to compacity with what Lucifer recognized to be reporters, and more than a few street cops were doing their best to force their way through the masses. Lucifer felt his brows raise as he watched it, door swinging closed behind him.

From the front of the room, he nodded at the receptionist. Richards gave a startled wave before once returning to the shouting match that he was having with a furious redhaired woman being filmed by a camera crew.

It was not the only camera crew in the room.

Lucifer almost wanted to turn around and pretend that he had never been in the building.

* * *

Olive Monroe, Chief of Police, stared at him.

Lucifer stared back, unwilling to be the first one to talk.

It had been three days after he returned to Earth when Monroe had called him in, wanting to talk. In that time, Lucifer had begun to return to normal. He’d started doing sets at LUX once more, reacquainted himself with the night crowd of LA, and even managed to get an identity for Michael set up so that his brother wouldn’t be without ID.

Michael Sword might not be the best name, but it was the name Michael had decided on. His Twin had been adamant that if Lucifer got to go by his title, then Michael was going to do the same.

Maze’s suggestion of ‘Michael Saint’ had been dismissed immediately. Michael had never been one that enjoyed the title of Saint and had been adamant that it gave humanity the wrong impression of him. Sword, Michael had claimed, was much more accurate.

Said Twin was currently waiting back at LUX for Lucifer’s return. It had been hard for both to separate, even if it was just for a short while, but it had been necessary. Lucifer had been warned by both Ella and Daniel about what this meeting might entail. Having Michael there could further complicate matters.

“So,” Monroe said, leaning back in her chair. “You’re the Devil.”

It wasn’t a question, though Lucifer could hear the slight disbelief in her voice. Sitting next to her was the Mayor and the new Lieutenant of the LAPD. Both looked as if they were a few minutes from a complete breakdown, he noted with a bit of humor.

If he wasn’t trying to convince them that he wasn’t going to attack, Lucifer would have been tempted to poke a little at them.

“Correct,” he said instead, leaning back in his own chair. “I have been telling you that from the beginning.”

Not, he reflected, that a single person had believed him. Humans, he thought with fondness.

The twinge of worry and anxiety were furiously shoved down.

There wasn’t a response to his words. He hadn’t been really hiding what he was.

“Right, okay,” the Mayor breathed, looking more and more like he was about to have a full breakdown. “Satan has been working for the LAPD, that makes perfect sense.”

Monroe didn’t’ look to be doing any better.

Maybe bringing Michael would have been a good idea, Lucifer reflected. His Twin was generally regarded better by humans that he was, despite Lucifer being the ‘nicer’ twin. Thinking about it, Lucifer decided that would still have been a mistake. Michael would likely poke and prod the humans in ways that Lucifer generally tried to avoid. They’d get nothing done that way.

“Okay, right.” Monroe breathed, rubbing her temples. “If you’re the Devil, then Mazikeen Smith is really a demon?”

“Yes,” he answered, hoping that Maze wasn’t going to lose her position as a bounty hunter for the LAPD over this. “Amenadiel, obviously, is an angel,” he added, just in case none of them had made this connection yet.

Amenadiel had joined them back on Earth the day before, having been assigned as another dignitary by God. Other than Lucifer, Amenadiel had the most experience with humanity among the Host. Establishing him as an angel to the LAPD and Mayor of Los Angeles before he started acting as a dignitary would be helpful in the long run.

Monroe stared a bit harder at that, looking as if she was considering quitting right then. Lucifer rather hoped she hadn’t, he’d had to pull more than one favor to get her the job as was his end of the deal they’d made. It would be a shame for her to give it up before her second year was halfway through.

“Amenadiel Canaan is listed as your brother,” the previously silent Lt. Anderson broke in. “I was under the impression that you were the Devil.”

“Falling,” Lucifer bit out. “Did not change my species.”

He was ignored as Lt. Anderson spoke again. “You can’t seriously believe this,” the human spat. “A few unexplainable events aren’t proof of anything. Just because God has proven to be real doesn’t mean that a delusional nightclub owner is really Satan!”

Monroe sighed. “Is there any proof that you can show us you are who you say you are?” Lt. Anderson asked him. “If you really are the Devil, prove it.”

Lucifer glared at him as he recognized the condescending tone that Anderson was using. He was tempted to bring up his Devil Face and put the fear of Hell into the unpleasant man. If they were alone, he might have actually done it. There was a taint to the man’s soul, one that marked him for Hell, and it made him long to deliver punishment. Instead, Monroe and Mayor Henderson were with them in the room, souls lacking the taint that Lt Anderson’s held.

With a deep breath, Lucifer thought over his options. Devil Face was out unless he wanted two humans undeserving of it. That left Devil Eyes or Wings. A few months ago, Lucifer would have chosen the eyes, thinking that they were more representative of who he was. In a way, he still felt that way. His Devil face and Hellfire eyes were the results of eons in Hell. Yet, with his other half beside him again, Lucifer had to acknowledge that his wings were another part of him.

A compromise then, he decided as he unfurled his wings and allowed Hellfire to fill his eyes. Monroe was standing, pushed against the wall under his gaze. Mayor John Henderson looked faint.

Lt. Evan Anderson stared; eyes filled with a terror that satisfied the need for punishment that curled in his soul. Lucifer allowed the Hellfire to fade, settling his wings behind his back. After so long of having them unfurled constantly, he was reluctant to put them away just yet.

“Proof enough?” he asked, keeping his voice light and remaining still in his seat.

“I think,” Monroe said shakily, “That we can agree that you are who you say you are. Lt. Anderson?”

The terror-filled eyes remained as she received a nod in response. Mayor Henderson nodded as well, eyes never leaving the wings that Lucifer kept displayed.

“Why now?” The mayor asked. “In the past, you could have easily proved who you were. So why would you only do so now?”

A good question, he thought dryly. “In the past, showing humans proof of divinity was outlawed by the word of God. Under that law, showing a human my wings could lead to humans losing their minds. And,” he continued easily. “Showing you aspects of my domain, like my Devil face or Hellfire eyes is a Punishment. One I try to reserve for the worst of humanity.”

Showing it to Linda had proven that to him. Even in a controlled environment, she had gone catatonic. She had pushed through, eventually, but Lucifer would not make that mistake again. Especially not after what had happened with Chloe.

He wouldn’t risk another Chloe.

Three gazes landed on the wings that Lucifer was displaying. “I don’t feel insane?” Mayor Henderson asked.

“Things have changed,” he said and left it at that. It wasn’t his job to explain God’s new decree, that the effects were being mitigated by the Almighty. That Angels were about to descend from above. They’d find out when Gabriel made her announcement, along with the rest of humanity.

“Right,” Monroe nodded, regaining composure. “You’re the Devil, Smith is a Demon, and Dr. Canaan is an angel. Is there anything else that we should be aware of?”

“Lt. Pierce was Cain,” Lucifer told her frankly. “He wasn’t the newest in a line of Sinnerman. He was the _original_ Sinnerman.”

Monroe choked at that. “I hired the first murderer to lead the homicide division?” She sounded faint.

“You did.” Lucifer agreed, not sugar-coating it. “As for other things you should be aware of,” he continued, changing the subject. “My Twin is currently in town as well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up ditching Andrews entirely and decided that Monroe would still be leading things during this, because of the media attention Cain and the missing priests had brought to the LAPD. I also didn't like the way that it flowed, which is why I decided to cut it. With everything else that was going on in Repercussions, this just felt a bit tacked on.


	6. Just A Writing Exercise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was just me messing around. It doesn't have any place within the established timeline and I don't really plan on using any of the characters in this. One of my friends was joking about Lucifer having a connection to a shadowy underground figure that ruled the US criminal underground and I thought it would be fun to take that idea and run with it. I may end up keeping a character or two but overall, none of this is going to appear in the main series.

Lucifer was already hating himself for agreeing to this.

Two weeks. It had been two weeks since he’d come back to Earth. In that time, he’d managed to mostly keep both himself and Michael out of the limelight, which was likely a miracle on the level of their Father at this point.

He wondered if the Almighty had been lending a hand. In the past that would have infuriated him. Now, he couldn’t bring himself to really care one way or the other. Ambivalence was much better than fear and anxiety, however, so his session with Linda had helped more than he’d first thought it would. She would likely be pleased by this.

Not that it mattered anymore, as the world had finally managed basic math and put two and two together. This meant that keeping himself and Michael out of things was no longer an option.

“This is going to be a nightmare,” he sighed, eyeing the reporters around him in distaste. He was usually all for attention, but this was pushing it to a level that he’d never wanted to be on. There was a reason that he’d never bothered to become more of a public figure than he had been before all of this. He was going to have to give his security a raise after all of this.

Depending on if they decided that being security for the Devil was worth it, he amended with a sigh.

Michael looked like he was five seconds from smiting the next person who flashed a camera in his face.

It was time to intervene. Keeping his Twin from losing it on some poor mortal that had no self-preservation instincts was one of the reasons that God had made that deal with him in the first place.

_‘Smiting the mortal is not going to do us any good,’_ Lucifer told his Twin, grabbing him and pulling them through the crowd of reporters.

He was a bit impressed that they had agreed to do this at all. Last he checked, humans weren’t usually eager to get involved with the Devil. They also usually had better sense than to annoy him.

He suspected it was the fact that no one had expected his double to walk out beside him. They’d likely remember themselves sooner rather than later.

Right now, Lucifer had been summoned by the governor of California, one Jericho Whitmen. Other than the unfortunate choice of names, Lucifer hadn’t had much to do with the governor. He’d kept his dealing with politics restricted to a few contacts in various agencies whenever he bothered to branch out of LA at all.

After receiving the summons, Lucifer had made it a point to make sure that he knew all he could about the man, though it was still sadly limited. Whitmen was 43, had been governor for four years, and had been doing a pretty decent job of it during that time. Democrat, wanted to fix up the school system in the state, married with two kids in high school, one openly trans female and was a vocal advocate for gay marriage and LGBTQA+ rights. So far, Lucifer liked what he’d heard.

That didn’t mean that this meeting was going to go well. Michael had been stressed since the moment Lucifer had informed his Twin that it was their turn.

He just couldn’t figure out what was getting Michael’s hackles up in response to this. He’d been happy enough when Lucifer had first agreed to become a dignitary, so this response wasn’t expected. Try as he might, Michael had been unable to communicate what, exactly, had him so stressed out. Which was only stressing the other Archangel even more.

That mortal with the flash camera would never know how closing she came to death by Archangel, Lucifer sighed. _‘Try and calm down. If you keep it up, every human around you is going to start to panic.’_

His Twin shuddered but ultimately cut down on the menace that was radiating from him in waves. Lucifer watched as the few humans still around him (those were some persistent reporters) relaxed.

With a grin, Lucifer unfurled his wings in preparation to take off. Best give them a show to distract them from Michael. His Twin rolled his eyes, an expression he’d learned from Beatrice, and copied him.

Within a couple of beats, they were off towards their destination.

Instead of using the door, Lucifer took Michael directly to the room where the governor was waiting.

Landing, Lucifer wasn’t surprised to see that there was more than just the governor in the room, waiting for them. No military, he was slightly surprised to see, just a few different officials. “Right then,” he said, manipulating the light around Michael to hide him from view. It wasn’t something that he could do much or for long, but it would give his Twin time to take everything in and calm down.

Michael wasn’t a fan of surprises and with how violent he’d been acting it would be best to let him relax a bit.

“Governor Whitmen,” he greeted with a slight smirk. The man didn’t seem all that startled by his appearance out of thin air. “I’m afraid I don’t know who your companions are.”

Three men and two women.

“Homeland security,” said a shorter, ginger male. He had a pleasant air about him and seemed more amused than anything. “We’re just here to establish a few things. I’m Jeffery Mere and this is my partner, Sandra Kiels.”

The taller brunette nodded towards him, badge in hand. “Pleasure,” she said, and Lucifer flashed her one of his best flirty smiles. While the idea of letting anyone close to him in that way wasn’t nearly as pleasant as it had been not too long ago, he still could appreciate a pretty mortal when he saw one.

He turned his attention to the remaining three. “I’m Secretary of State Trent Andrews,” the blonde man sitting in one of the provided chairs responded.

Lucifer noted that and filed it away for later. He’d never much-paid attention to the different positions of the US government, having only really been concerned with paying the necessary taxes and keeping from bringing the lot of them down on his head. Likely a mistake, he admitted internally. He’d have to start looking into them now that he was a ‘dignitary’.

“And you two are?” he asked, deciding to seat himself on the couch so that Michael could have the seat next to him. A little more manipulation of the light in the room and no one noticed the indent where Michael had sat next to him. He crossed his legs and leaned back.

This was much more interesting than what he’d been expecting.

“We’re CIA,” the bland faced man said. Even his voice was rather bland. Lucifer was actually a little impressed by how unassuming that man was. The woman, on the other hand, was much more memorable. Dark black hair, fair skin, and delicately applied makeup drew the eye to her.

They didn’t bother to give names and Lucifer liked them more for that. Any name they gave him would have been a lie. He wasn’t a fan of being lied to and the lack of any was a good indication that they had done their research on him. He didn’t keep his opinion on lies a secret.

“Right then!” he clapped. “As you no doubt already know, I’m Lucifer Morningstar, or if we’re going by True Names, Samael the Lucifer. I prefer the former if you please.”

He gestured to Michael, allowing his Twin to be visible. The humans in the room jumped, startled. “This is Michael the Sword, my Twin.”

Michael merely nodded at them before relaxing slightly.

“Twin?” the CIA woman asked, shocked. “You’re twins?”

Lucifer rolled his eyes (alright so maybe Michael wasn’t the only one the Spawn had infected with that gesture). “Obviously,” he drawled. “The First Twins, actually.”

“Now then!” he grinned. “What exactly is this meeting about? I can guess however I’m sure it would take much less time for you to just tell us now.”

“I called this meeting,” the governor interrupted, glaring at the other invaders of his office, “because it was recommended to me by a friend that I make contact with you. A very trusted friend who wishes to remain anonymous. It was my intent to ascertain your identity, which you’ve nicely confirmed with your entrance. I was also intending to form my own opinion on you during this and go from there.”

That was all completely true and not it was most definitely not everything. Lucifer had a good idea who it was that had reached out to the governor to prompt this meeting and reminded himself to send Gabby a gift basket. As always, the woman proved that she was more than worth any investment that Lucifer had put in her. He hadn’t even called in a favor for this, which he’d been considering off and on for the last few weeks.

She’d even made sure to reach out to the right person. Governor Jericho Whitmen was not pleased that his plans had been waylaid.

“We got word of the meeting and decided it would be to our best interests to attend as well,” the CIA man responded, not at all concerned by the glare that was being sent his way. “Homeland and the Secretary were not informed of this by us.”

“I have sources,” the Secretary answered, eyes never leaving Lucifer. “No doubt Homeland has those same sources or their own.”

The homeland agents remained quiet, offering no denial. They had all definitely been coached on how to deal with him. Which meant that he was going to have to do better than a gift basket. Gabby was top of her game with this one.

Maybe he’d send Maze her way when things settled. The Demon bounty hunter would love working for a freelancer like Gabby for a short while.

“Hmmm,” he agreed, eyeing them all. Their souls, while not pure, were definitely of better quality than most would fair in the positions that they’d found themselves in. That was even more interesting when looking at the CIA agents. There was guilt, that was true, just not as much as he would have expected. Not enough to have them Hellbound. “Very well. Since your plains have been waylaid, I’m sure that these nice gents and ladies wouldn’t mind getting their own business out of the way first?”

He focused on the CIA agents, the most dangerous ones in the room judging by their souls. Mortals in the line of killing with souls like that were ones to be watched. No fanatics in the way that the word implied, just close enough to deal with their job and remain sane. “Let’s start with you two, shall we?”

He let his eyes flicker to Hellfire and watched as they all did their best not to react. Michael snorted from beside him, otherwise keeping quiet. Lucifer had been the one called in during this meeting and Michael was his backup for the moment, not the other way around. “What’s your business, unnamed CIA agents?”

The woman backed up, hand moving to her gun. Not that it would do her any good, Lucifer wasn’t vulnerable to guns without Chloe around. Maybe not even with her around, now that things had changed. He wasn’t sure how much of the self-actualizing theory that Amenadiel was currently spouting was true. Neither was his brother. Apparently, Amenadiel hadn’t felt like it was the right time to approach their Father with that question right now. Lucifer certainly wasn’t going to be the one to ask in his place.

Michael, however, growled. The menace that had vanished was back and filling the room quickly. The shadows seemed to grow around them and even Lucifer could feel the terror that started to fill the room.

“That,” he told his Twin. “Is not going to help her _not_ go for the gun. A gun, I might remind you, that does not hurt us.”

Not without a Miracle around, at the very least. Lucifer doubted that there were any Miracles around right now, or that there would be any for a good while. He turned his attention to the woman. “You’ve been coached on how to deal with me,” he told her, eyes flashing as he locked eyes. “Michael, however, is not me. I would think very carefully about pulling a weapon that won’t work on us but _will_ make you a threat in the eyes of my Twin.”

“Do not pull that gun,” her partner said, grabbing her arm. “We are not here to piss off angels.”

Or God, went unsaid.

She nodded, letting her hand fall back to her side. Michael eyed her, letting the shadow return to normal and the menace fade back into nothing. To observers, nothing would have changed.

The terror died down, slowly.

“What was that?” Whitmen asked, shakily from his own seat. The drink that had been full was now spilled on the floor. A waste of good champagne, Lucifer mourned.

“Michael,” Lucifer said with a shrug. “As I am the Lightbringer, my twin rules the Dark of the world. Yin and Yang, if that helps you understand any better.”

That comparison had been made by Beatrice the other night and Lucifer found that, while not perfect, it fit better than some of the other ways that they’d tried to explain it. They weren’t complete opposites, but they weren’t identical either.

Without pause, Lucifer unfurled his wings at the same time as Michael did. It would, Lucifer decided, be best that these humans did not forget who they were and what would happen if harm befell either of them. While he was still skeptical of the response if _he_ were hurt, Michael being hurt would definitely bring God’s wrath on their heads.

It was still a bit hard to get used to human eyes on his wings. He’d spent a very long time making sure that they were hidden and, failing that, the humans that had seen them tended to go mad. The idea that he could just have them out without a problem was still a very foreign one to him.

“We are here,” the smart CIA agent began. “To assess your threat level and report back. Nothing more and nothing less. We are _not_ here to bring the Wrath of God on our heads or to do anything to you beyond talking. The guns were not intended to be pulled on you during this and _will_ not be pulled.”

“I wouldn’t promise that,” Michael finally spoke. “I can drive most to violence, given enough time.”

Lucifer snorted, not arguing with that. “He’s not wrong,” he shrugged under the glances of the humans.

“As for your threat level,” Michael continued. “We are Archangels. The same Archangel’s that helped God form the very universe that you live in. Who made the abyss of space and the burning embers that you’ve named the stars. Lucifer crafted the very sun that lights your days and I formed the Moon that reflects its’ light during your nights. We are the Light and Dark, the Will and Power of God. That is our threat level.”

Lucifer sat back, content to watch where Michael was going with this. The humans were watching his Twin now, eyes intent. There was awe in the set of Whitmen and Andrews shoulders and fear in the rest.

“Together,” his Twin said and his eyes went black in a way that only Michael could do. “We are the Demiurge. It would do your best to remember that, mortals.”

And like nothing had happened, Michael pulled a bag of Oreos out of his wings, taking one out and popping one in his mouth.

“Did you take those out of the kitchen?” Lucifer asked, going for one himself. Michael rolled his eyes and pulled out a pudding cup instead. It had the name ‘Dan’ scrawled on the top. Delighted, Lucifer took the cup and offered a spoon.

“He does that,” the Devil waved a hand before eating a spoonful of pudding.

Like humans, Lucifer knew that Michael was making a statement on purpose. If he could carry pudding, spoons, and Oreos in his wings, he was definitely carrying weapons there. If they were smart, they wouldn’t make him bring out the knives that he had taken from Mazikee.

“Very dangerous,” Sandra Kiels spoke up, voice shaken. She, at least, got the message then. “Noted.”

Lucifer said nothing, taking another bite of pudding. He merely turned his attention the Homeland security agents, a clear signal for them to talk.

“We were sent to deliver these,” Jeffery Mere said, pulling out five envelopes and setting them on the table. “I don’t know what’s in them, that’s above my pay grade.”

That was interesting, now wasn’t it? Lucifer eyed the two before turning to the envelopes. “I would think to be a messenger would be beneath your status,” he mused, not moving to pick the offered envelopes up just yet.

“Not,” Sandra Kiels answered, “When we’re delivering it to Archangels, one of which is the Devil.”

Lucifer flashed her another grin, letting the red slip into his eyes just a touch. It was amusing to see the way that they flinched at the reminder.

It might have been just a tad satisfying, to have humans suddenly believing him when he spoke now. Probably not worth the headache that this was going to turn into, but still satisfying.

That left the Secretary of State, who had remained silent during all of this. “And yourself, Mr. Secretary?” Lucifer drawled, attention on the last in the room.

“I am here for the same reasons that the Governor called you here, I suspect.” The Secretary leaned forward and turned to look at the four agents. “This matter is none of your concern. With your business concluded, it is time for you to leave, gentlemen and ladies.”

The CIA agents glared. Lucifer suspected neither appreciated the patronizing tone that the Secretary had used. Homeland, interestingly enough, didn’t seem phased. Used to being told to leave, likely.

Interest piqued from where Michael sat next to him. Lucifer couldn’t blame him, his own intrigue keeping him seated and waiting patiently. He could be patient, when things were interesting enough. And this was certainly interesting.

The four left and shut the door behind them. There was silence as those present waited for the footsteps to fade into nothing as the four agents left.

“Now then,” the Secretary crossed his legs. “It’s come to our attention that you, Lucifer Morningstar, have been working for the LAPD for the last few years. I’m sure that the governor has been made aware of this as well. Governor?”

Whitmen sighed but couldn’t protest the presence of the Secretary of state. “I’ve gone over every case that you’ve been involved in and there are things that haven’t been lining. Especially with the discovery of the Sinnerman operation. Who was Marcus Pierce, really?”

“Cain,” Michael answered before Lucifer could. “There was no Marcus Pierce and there was never a different Sinnerman. It was a name that Cain fashioned for himself during this lifetime. No doubt he would have changed it eventually when it became obvious that he’d stopped aging.”

Silence.

“Cain, as in the first murderer?” Whitmen asked, looking up from his files, startled.

“The very same,” Lucifer agreed, an edge to his voice. “I suppose you’re welcome for dealing with the problem. Becoming the Father of Organized Crime isn’t what we all expected he’d do with immortality, I’m afraid.”

It always came back to Cain, lately. Chloe had done what she’d done because of Cain. Maze had been talked into betraying him by Cain, who took advantage of her when she was most vulnerable. Lucifer couldn’t blame the demon for it, as he’d done some, in retrospect, stupid things himself when dealing with some new emotion. He really should have done more the moment that he’d figured out what the bastard was up to.

The problem with Cain was that he had been _likable_. Lucifer had enjoyed a few of their encounters before he’d started to see more and more behind the mask. He hadn’t liked what he’d found. He’d forgotten that while human emotions were hard for himself and Maze, Cain was already human. Had always been human, even. Any kind of ‘change’ had only been another lie, one that Cain had been very, very practiced at.

“He’s in Hell now,” Lucifer said with some glee. “A locked cell, where he won’t be able to escape and do any more harm. I’m afraid that his body count might very well be in the thousands.”

“254,951 in the last five thousand years,” Michael sighed. “Azrael looked after Cain made the mistake of going after you and Amenadiel. That’s as far as she’s been able to confirm and with recent events, I doubt that she’ll keep looking.”

“That many?” whispered the Governor. “Why didn’t anyone do something earlier?”

“Don’t look at me,” the Devil shrugged. “All I know until I met him was his story. Never saw his face before then, either, which is why it took me so long to recognize him.”

“That is all well and good,” the Secretary said. “That doesn’t change the fact that you were the one the killed him, correct? It was stated as self-defense at the time.”

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. “I might not pay attention to the government, other than to follow it’s laws, but I know enough to know that such things as an investigation by the LAPD is below your pay grade. Why are you here, Secretary?”

“Cain attempted to use infernal steal to kill Lucifer,” Michael answered before the Secretary could. “Father considered erasing Cain from existence after his death before deciding that allowing Cain to be trapped in Hell would be a worse punishment.”

_‘He wasn’t happy with the damage that you took,’_ Michael added. _‘I was not informed of this until much later. I think Father was afraid that I would retaliate.’_

Which he would have, went unsaid. That could have been a disaster, Lucifer winced.

“The reason,” the Secretary answered after letting Michael’s words sink in. “That I am here is because Satan has been living on US soil for eight years and we’ve known nothing about it. Now twelve priests in LA have gone missing and a Vatican official has apparently been punished by God. An official that was last seen in LA. Where, it turns out, Satan has been living for eight years. The government wants answers and foreign negotiations are done through _my_ office. I am not going to send an ambassador to meet the Devil, so I have come here myself.”

There it was, Lucifer grumbled. He’d known that things were about to become a lot harder for him with angels making themselves known to the humans. He had hoped, foolishly, that Kinley and his various cohorts wouldn’t get brought up. Of course that would be what this was about. It was likely why Michael had been tense all morning. His Twin always seemed to know when something unpleasant was about to happen, though they’d never really figured out why that was.

“The twelve priests were destroyed by our Father,” Michael answered while Lucifer tried to form a reply. “Kinley came across an Enochian ritual that was created as a last resort should the Goddess of Creation escape her cell and resume Her attack upon humanity. It was unknown to us that the ritual had fallen into human hands. Kinley used this ritual and nearly erased the angel in question. I’m sure your mortal mind can comprehend what that would entail to an immortal being?”

The Secretary reared, incensed at the insult. With the way Michael was exuding power, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. It was clear that this man was in the ‘fight’ response of Michael’s particular influence.

“Michael,” he said warningly, letting a little of his power slip between them in an effort to keep his Twin from taking this farther.

It didn’t help. The violence that was starting to seep into the air was getting thicker. It was likely for the best that those carrying guns had left, else this could have gotten very ugly. _“Calm down!”_ he snapped Enochian flowing of his tongue in a way it hadn’t in eons. He forced Will into the words, letting the command ring in the room.

Michael was Power in the same way that he was Dark. That brought its own set of abilities, among them the ability to draw on the emotions that were tied to Power. Fear, anger, violence, and more. All Angels were warriors, and as such, predators to species that were lesser. Michael, though, was a predator on another level. It was only God and Goddess that could outmatch Michael when Lucifer had been banished. If Michael had been able to help keep their Mother confined when She had been banished as well, then his Twin had grown in their time apart.

Lucifer, as Will, could temper that Power when it started to get out of control. It wasn’t something that he’d had to do for a very, very long time. It was why Father had wanted him to accompany Michael during this. If he lost control, which Michael was dangerously close to doing right now, Lucifer could keep it from becoming a catastrophe.

It was the part of his powers that Lucifer hated the most: imposing his Will onto others. He _knew_ the importance of Free Will, it was one of the things that he had fought for in the rebellion. That he could take it away was something he’d kept a very closely guarded secret and had vowed never to use when it wasn’t necessary. Amenadiel didn’t even know that he could do this and Lucifer liked to keep it that way.

Now he’d just been forced to use it on Michael in front of two humans.

_‘I’m sorry,’_ Michael apologized. _‘I didn’t mean to make you do that. I’m sorry.’_

He didn’t want to do this next part. Michael couldn’t be trusted to talk without losing it again and Lucifer didn’t want to have to force his Will on his Twin again. Not today, at the very least. Preferably they could get through the rest of this nightmare without it happening again.

“You’ve already figured out that Kinley used it on me,” he said and sent reassurance to Michael. Lucifer doubted that he’d be any better if Michael had been the one other the other end of that ritual. “There might have been a time when we could have left that out but Kinley wasn’t as subtle as he thought he’d been. Or he never considered that he had been open about his attentions within the Vatican as being a problem. He left a lot of clues when he was in LA as well. I’ve had someone following the trail he left since I realized I was going to be pulled into this mess.”

Telling the truth was all the time might sound good in theory, and it mostly was. In practice? Lucifer new quite a few things that would have been nice to have the ability to lie during.

He was going to have to get used to this being something that was well known, however. The LAPD, according to Ella, had already put a lot of it together. Maze had tried with her phone call to keep the humans from worrying. Instead, she’d inadvertently given a timeline they could use to connect him to everything. What were the odds that a Vatican priest and twelve local priests would end up punished and smote by God on the same day that Lucifer, self-proclaimed Devil, had a break-in?

A layman on the street could have connected those dots with little problem. The LAPD was not full of stupid mortals, though there were some that were a little of the slow side. If the Governor and Secretary had gone through all the reports that included him, they would have come across the break-in report done by Daniel. It might have been better to have stated ‘family emergency’ instead. There was nothing to do about it now.

“I will explain this once,” Lucifer allowed the Will that was as much a part of him as Light to color his voice. “One time, in this place. You may distribute it as you wish, there’s no stopping it. Angels are immortal. When our physical bodies are put under enough damage, we die, and our souls return to the Silver City. Heaven, to mortals. Afterwards, our bodies heal, and our souls bring it to us across the plains of existence. Don’t misunderstand, we feel pain like any other creature of this universe. What that ritual did was not an attack on our physical bodies, it was an attack on our soul.”

“It is normally impossible for the soul of an angel to be damaged by anything other than God or Goddess. This ritual was made to contain the Goddess and was used in conjunction with an exorcism, which while it is infective on us with the tie between soul and body that angels have, it does attempt to remove the soul. That combination twisted the two magicks until it wasn’t a banishing of soul or binding of soul, but the destruction of the soul. If you destroy a soul, there is no coming back from that. Not for human and not for an angel.” Lucifer could still feel the agony of the magic in the blade, slicing through his skin and his soul with each strike.

Lucifer was not a stranger to pain, soul or physical. That includes both his own pain and another’s. It didn’t bother him, really, to think about that part of it all. He wasn’t a stranger to being tortured, it had happened a few times when a demon managed to injure him enough without killing him before he’d established himself as King in Hell. A few times afterward, though Mazikeen made a very effective deterrent. The hounds that he’d raised had cut the attempts down to zero. That was just Hell. Earth had its own joys attached to it when it came to torture.

It was Chloe and her betrayal that made his heartache.

“It would not have just taken Lucifer,” Michael said quietly, and Lucifer turned to look at him. “We are Twins, two halves of a whole, Light and Dark, Will and Power. I would have also been destroyed.”

_‘I would have not lasted without you,’_ Michael whispered. _‘I would have followed in whatever way I could have found.’_

“Kinley and the twelve priests nearly killed both of you with forbidden magic made to contain the Goddess of Creation, because there’s apparently also a Goddess, and in response, God smote the priests and turn Kinley into a statue.” Trent Andrews rubbed his temples. “If they had succeeded, what would have happened?”

Michael reared, eyes flashing black. Lucifer raised an eyebrow at the question and prepared to hold Michael back. This wasn’t a threat, it was a necessary answer.

“We need to know what we could have been looking at,” the Secretary said, raising his hands. “You’re here to re-establish contact with humanity to prevent more incidents like this. I’m assuming that this ritual is gone and can’t be used again. That fact that it happened once means that it can happen again. If you want us to work with you, we need to prepare for all worse case scenarios, so we know what we need to do to make this work, on humanity’s end.”

“The stars would have disappeared,” Michael answered. “As it is, there are a few of Father’s other project planets that no longer have a sun to orbit them. Your sun would have been one of the last to go as it was the last made but it would have faded. After that, space would have started to fade as well. Without me, there is no space. Eventually, the parts of this world that Lucifer and I were assigned to work on would have collapsed as well. Plants, which thrive on the sun, would have died off entirely. Then so would the animals that fed on them. It would be a famine that would have no end. The barrier that keeps your air within the reigns of the planet would have shattered, killing off everyone that had survived everything else.”

“That is if Father had not decided that humanity at the whole was at fault for our destruction and didn’t destroy your entire species himself,” Michael added, after a moment.

Lucifer attempted to look like none of this was news to him, though he’d never heard any of it before now.

_‘After you woke, Father decided to look.’_ Michael answered his unvoiced question. _‘He left it to me to tell you when it became necessary. When the Morning Star nearly faded, He was suspicious about the reason.’_

“Without the two of you, life becomes unsustainable?” the Governor asked, eyes wide.

“No, just life as Father has it currently designed,” Michael shrugged. “He would have tried again, eventually, without the use of Light and Dark.”

_‘He could have just reconstructed the stars and space Himself,’_ Lucifer frowned. _‘He has access to every power that we have.’_

Michael didn’t answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was the end of that little idea. I have no intention of putting any of this in the main series, so I figured that I would post it here.   
> And that's all I have as of right now. There are a couple of little tidbits that I edited out of the main series which I'm not including because they contain series suppliers for later installments. About 1,000-1,500 words in total. I did warn you all that I had a lot of extra content for this series.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this and I'll add more as the series goes on, I'm sure.


	7. Changes-Maze's conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an alternate scene of the one in Changes, where Maze talks to Edwards, Monroe, and Walters. I pretty much knew from the start that this wasn't going to be included but I still had fun seeing how the actual conversation could have gone before I worked on the one that was included.

Listening to Edwards go over everything they knew was even harder now than the first time. Everything was stated professionally and with the distance that made Edwards such a good Detective.

Olivia could see the anger and disgust that filled his eyes, however. As detached as he wanted to appear, Edwards was just as close to this case as the rest of them were. Morningstar had done a very good job at endearing himself to every single person that worked in the LAPD, from homicide to regular beat cops. There wasn’t a single officer that had survived the purges caused by Graham and Pierce that didn’t have a soft spot of the consultant.

More than a few of them had been forced to take a few minutes while they’d been processing the scene. The only thing that allowed Olivia to keep her lunch down had been her experience.

That didn’t stop her from seeing it in her nightmares. It was probably one of the worst torture scenes that she’d ever seen. All of it was worsened by the fact that not only was it, someone, she knew, but they had also nearly died from it.

There was a reason that Olivia hadn’t interviewed Morningstar about it when she’d called him in. She was tempted, of course. If it had been a different case, she would have had to. It was only the fact that all the culprits were dead and the involvement of _God_ that kept her from having to ask those hard questions.

That didn’t mean that they didn’t need to know. With or without Decker’s possible involvement, the precinct needed to be on the look-out for possible copycats. The threatening letters that people from all over the country had been sending the LAPD couldn’t just be ignored. Someone was going to try something.

Olivia wanted to be fully informed so that they could be prepared for that day. The threat of being smote by God wasn’t going to keep all the radicals subdued forever.

“What we don’t know is how any of this was possible,” Edwards said, finally. “Decker’s blood and necklace don’t seem to have any purpose yet they were found in the dagger used and the ashes of Kinley. How did Kinley get the codes to the penthouse? How did he manage to drug Morningstar?”

Smith looked at them, head titled. “You have theories,” she said, eyes narrowed. “You think you know exactly how Kinley got the codes, how he knocked Lucifer out.”

“Yes,” Edwards nodded, face dark.

“I think it would be best to start from where I came in,” Smith said after a moment. “I’m not just a demon, though most would tell you otherwise. I’m of the Lilim, the children of the first demons and Lilith, the first wife of Adam. It’s why I look partially human, even without the glamour that lets me blend in. Eons ago, I pledged my services to the King of Hell, bond by oath given and accepted. For eons, I served as his right hand and, at times, bodyguard.”

The idea of it nearly stole her breath away. It was one thing to know that you were dealing with an ancient being, it was another to apply that knowledge. Edwards leaned forward, face as intent as Olivia suspected her own was.

“When we came here, it was supposed to be a vacation,” Smith continued. “A few centuries and we were planning on returning to Hell. The more time that we spent here, that plan seemed more and more distant, until one day, Lucifer decided that he wasn’t going back. I think that it was the same day he released me of my oath. Releasing me, however, wasn’t enough to merely destroy the bond created over eons. That is what allowed me to know that something was wrong the night that Kinley broke in.”

“The penthouse was trashed when I got there. The only thing that was left untouched was a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. I didn’t need more than a sniff to know that there was poison in the wine. From there, I contacted Linda Martin, who has been aware of us for a while now. I needed her to call for Amenadiel,” Smith stated, face calm. It was like she was merely retelling a story second hand. If not for the black in her eyes, Olivia would have said she was unaffected by anything she was saying.

That black told a different story.

“Why would you need Martin to call Canaan?” Olivia asked eyes narrowed. “Why not call him yourself?”

“Amenadiel was with Charlotte when Cain killed her,” Smith told her, the black leaking away. “That bullet was supposed to be for him, she pushed him out of the way. He flew her soul to Heaven himself when she died. He hadn’t returned yet. Time works differently between the three planes. Since we arrived here eight years ago in Earth time, it has been four thousand years in Hell. What was over a month to us was two days to Amenadiel.”

That was something that she was going to have to think about later, preferably with a stiff drink in her hand.

“Prayers can only be sent by beings with a soul. Demons, even the Lilim, don’t have souls. I needed Linda to pray because I couldn’t.” Make that a few drinks, Olivia thought to herself. So much for being an atheist. “Once Amenadiel was there, we started investigated further. The second wine glass had been wiped clean of fingerprints, even Lucifer’s. And I could smell Decker on the wine bottle.”

The hope that Chloe Decker hadn’t been involved crashed and burned with a single sentence. Olivia Monroe closed her eyes and cursed to herself.

“We got to her apartment and she admitted it,” Smith snarled. “She’d freaked out when she learned that Lucifer was telling the truth and took off to Rome. Kinley approached her there and she agreed to an insane plan of sending both of us back to Hell. Stupid bint didn’t bother asking the details, just took the ‘sedative’ he gave her and dosed Lucifer with it.”

“Wait,” Edwards held up a hand. “Last I knew, Decker was convinced that Morningstar was speaking in metaphors. How, exactly, did she find out?”

That was a very good question, one that had been bothering Olivia since she first started suspecting there had been more than what Decker had claimed behind her jumpiness.

“She found out at the gallery when Cain lured them into a trap,” Smith grimaced. “This next part can’t reach anyone else.”

“Everything we say here is currently off record,” Olivia informed her. “As it is, I’m not sure that a jury would ever find Decker guilty of anything more than aiding and abetting.”

The first case dealing with angels couldn’t be this one. If people decided that Decker was justified because Morningstar was the literal Devil, it could set the wrong precedent for all cases that dealt with the supernatural. Everything that was said here could never reach a single person outside of this room.

Smith gave her an approving look. “Chloe Decker is a literal Miracle,” the demon finally said. “God apparently thought that if He put a human that was immune to Lucifer’s powers in Lucifer’s path, then Lucifer would have a chance to figure out how to make real relationships. I’m sure you’ve already figured out that he isn’t the best of figuring humans out?”

Olivia was definitely planning on drinking when she got home tonight. “We noticed,” she said drily.

Edwards snorted, despite the situation. The entire precinct remembered how hurt Morningstar had been when they’d interviewed his past ‘conquests’. At the time, they’d thought that he was an abuse victim that thought sex was the way to make relationships. Instead, he was the literal Devil who thought sex was the way to make relationships with _humans_.

Honestly, his therapist needed a raise.

“Decker is a Miracle created by God so the Devil could learn how friendship works,” Walters repeated. It was the first thing that the young detective had said since they’d first started this headache of a conversation.

“Yes,” the literal demon nodded. “An unintended side effect is, as far as we can tell, she neutralizes his power. Including being invulnerable to human weapons. Whenever Decker was in a certain range of proximity, Lucifer could be injured by human weapons. Amenadiel thinks that God took care of that now, so it won’t be a problem in the future. Cain knew that, it was why he’d come to LA in the first place. He was hoping that whatever effect Decker had on Lucifer would work on him and let him die. Of course, when the curse did break the fucker backed out. He figured that if he killed an angel, then God would curse him again. He tried for Amenadiel first and hit Charlotte instead. With Amenadiel in the Silver City, the only angel left on the planet was Lucifer.”

“And that’s why he lured them into that trap,” Olivia breathed. It had never made sense, really. Even if Morningstar had known that Pierce was the Sinnerman, no one had believed him when he’d tried to tell everyone. Pierce should have been clear to pack up and run without anyone being the wiser until long after he was gone. Espinoza and Lopez may have also figured it out but he hadn’t gone after them. Instead, he went after Decker, who hadn’t known before then, and Morningstar.

When you added the Devil and Cain into the mix, things only made a little more sense. Canaan and Smith had only gone on record that Pierce was trying for an angel and had stolen the means to kill one.

The _why_ had always been missing. Now that she had it, Olivia wished had never found out.

“He was banking on Lucifer being around Chloe and vulnerable,” Smith growled. “Had men with machine guns start firing on them. Decker was out by then and Lucifer used his wings to shield them both. Apparently, angel wings are too dense for bullets to fully penetrate them. He still has the lot of them from when he dug them out in his penthouse.”

“You’re telling me that he was walking around with bullets in him during the entire time that we kept him on the scene?” Edwards looked sick. Olivia didn’t blame him, she felt a bit ill as well.

They were going to have to keep a better eye on Morningstar, she thought. Even if God had taken care of the issue of Decker’s proximity, there was always the chance of something similar happening in the future.

“It’s not like he could have had paramedics fish them out,” Smith snorted. “Anyways, Lucifer was pretty pissed at this point. He flew Decker out and came back to figure out what to do with Cain. What he didn’t know is that Cain got the drop on me and had one of my hell forged blades now, which meant that he didn’t need Decker around anymore. I guess he thought that Lucifer would be injured enough to go down. You already know who came on top in that fight.”

They’d known that Pierce had attacked Morningstar with a knife, which was later revealed to be able to harm angels. Olivia hadn’t had a clue that Morningstar had also be shot first. It did certainly explain the empty shell casings and machine guns that they’d found on the scene. She was going to have to put that, at least, on record. Not the injured part, just that the bullets had gotten caught in angel wings and had to be dug out later. “Can you wash off any blood residue and bring them in for processing?” she asked. “If we can add that on file, leaving out that Morningstar was injured, it would certainly make the case of self-defense stronger. It would also explain why he didn’t come forward with them sooner.”

Smith gave her a considering look before nodding. “I don’t see why not,” the demon shrugged.

“That can’t be everything that happened,” Edwards interrupted. He looked thoughtful. “I didn’t know Decker well but saving her life doesn’t seem like a good reason to go along with Kinley.”

Smith eyed him, face intent. “Lucifer has a glamour,” the demon said slowly. “It’s the opposite of mine. Instead of making himself look human, he can mimic the burns from when he Fell, and ignited his eyes with Hellfire. He uses it when dealing with certain souls and was wearing it when he was making sure that Cain was Hell-bound. Not that he needed to, I could smell the brimstone on him from the moment I met him. Lucifer was pissed that he’d gone after Amenadiel, killed Charlotte, and I’m pretty sure he was also grumpy about the 300 bullets in his wings.”

A few weeks ago, and Olivia probably would have been a bit unnerved at the idea of anyone ensuring someone ended up damned. Now, she couldn’t say that she wouldn’t have done the same to anyone that had threatened her family, killed a friend, and then proceeded to shot her 300 times. Not to mention the hundreds of people whose deaths they had connected to Pierce since his death.

If anyone deserved to rot in Hell, it was probably the person who had invented murder and then had possibly invented organized crime. With every new death that was connected to Pierce every day, Olivia had been less and less inclined to view him as anything other than a monster. The fact that she had hired him still infuriated her. Knowing that he was in Hell didn’t do more than bring her some satisfaction.

“Decker saw a glamour and that’s why she decided to help a madman?” Edwards' voice was filled with disbelief. “After he’d just saved her life and was pumped full of bullets by someone that she was planning on marrying. A man who was a literal crime lord and also, apparently, the first human to every commit homicide. That’s why she decided to help a madman try to kill her partner.”

“Don’t ask me, I don’t understand human emotions!” the demon protested. “You lot do strange things all the time that don’t make sense!”

That was probably fair, Olivia acknowledged. She was human and sometimes the things that people did made no sense to her. Expecting a literal demon to know was probably pushing it.

Olivia Monroe sighed and wished that she had thought to stock her desk with alcohol. This whole thing had her wishing she was drunk out of her mind.


	8. Penelope Decker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was just a quick idea of what Penelope's reaction to everything going on in the world. I ended up going with Chloe contacting her mother, instead of the other way around. Still, I had this written already so I thought that I'd post it.

Penelope Decker looked at her phone, double-checking to make sure that she had gotten the address right. It had taken a bit of fast-talking to get it from the San Jose police station. Trying to explain why her daughter hadn’t given her mother her new address hadn’t been easy.

Thankfully, they’d bought her story that she had written it down wrong and had ended up on the other side of San Jose and Chloe wasn’t answering her phone. The only part of that which Penelope hadn’t lied about was the second part.

It was just her luck that Chloe had been on a stakeout the night before and her precinct just thought Chloe was dead to the world instead of ignoring her mother’s calls.

Penelope had been calling for three days straight and had gotten no answer. She’d finally filled up Chloe’s inbox before she had decided that she needed to come out in person to get answers.

She was very much dreading what it was that she was going to learn from this. Chloe didn’t just ignore her for no reason, not when it was something this important. Honestly, Penelope shouldn’t have had to learn about what had happened to Lucifer from the television! Chloe should have called her the moment that she knew that something was wrong.

Lucifer might be the literal Devil but that didn’t change the fact that the man was absolutely in love with her daughter. She’d been able to see from the very first time she’d seen them together. They interacted the same what that she and John had before he died. It hadn’t sat well when Chloe had gotten engaged to Marcus Pierce. It sat even worse when Chloe had told her Marcus was dead, had been a crime lord of all things, and she was taking Trixie to Rome.

Chloe had always thought that Rome was overrated! Penelope had been far too much in shock about the crime lord her daughter had been planning to marry before he’d tried to kill her and her partner, that she hadn’t questioned it.

Now God had apparently smote a bunch of priests, a Vatican official, and literal Angels were descending onto the Earth. One of which was the literal Devil who apparently was now on good terms with God. Better yet, the deceased crime lord was also confirmed to be the formerly immortal Father of Murder.

And to top it all off, Chloe was refusing the answer the phone and had moved from LA without telling her mother. She’d found out from Daniel! Her ex-husband knew where she was moving before Penelope had!

She was going to find out just what was going on if it was the death of her. Somehow, Chloe fit into all of this, and Penelope needed to know what her daughter had gotten herself into.

(She was very afraid that Chloe had been on the wrong side of this mess.)

Bracing herself, Penelope pounded on the door. “Chloe, open this door this minute!” Penelope snapped when no one moved to answer even though she could hear the television playing in the background.

She waited a good ten minutes before Chloe’s door opened.

Her daughter looked horrible. Her hair was knotted, she was in pajamas, and her eyes were red and tear tracks streaked her cheeks. Chloe looked worse than she had when her father had died.

Penelope pulled her into a hug without thought. She stroked blond hair as Chloe sobbed into her shirt.

It did not matter what had caused this. Chloe could have murdered a bus of people and Penelope still would have pulled her little girl into a hug. She suspected she knew what this was about, Chloe didn’t get this upset without reason, yet that didn’t matter right now.

Whatever had happened, her daughter needed her.

Penelope was very tired of not being there when her child needed her.

**Author's Note:**

> And there you have it, that's all I managed of this version of Recovery before I decided that I wasn't happy with it.


End file.
